J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Copy-Drawings 1794-8 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Rocky Wooded Hillside c.1794

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Rocky Wooded Hillside’ c.1794
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Rocky Wooded Hillside c.1794
D41457
Turner Bequest XXXII F v
Soft-ground etching on white laid paper, 219 x 273 mm
Finberg records an inscription: ‘Mr Turner’. When the drawing was lifted from its modern backing paper it was not found, but instead part of a soft-ground etching showing a rocky wooded hillside. The style of the drawing in this print suggests that it is Turner’s own work of about 1794. Compare the fragmentary print Tate D41464 (Turner Bequest XXXII C v).
Turner had noted etching materials, and even possibly planned a series of etchings by himself, as early 1791; see Tate D40213 (Turner Bequest V D [verso]). There is further evidence of a returning interest in etching in a note in his Studies near Brighton sketchbook (Tate D40761; Turner Bequest XXX inside back cover).
Technical notes:
The sheet had been folded vertically two-thirds of the way across.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Rocky Wooded Hillside c.1794 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-rocky-wooded-hillside-r1140056, accessed 26 April 2024.