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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Thames, from Reading to Walton ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Barges at a Lock 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Barges at a Lock’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Barges at a Lock 1805
D05931
Turner Bequest XCV 27
Pencil on white wove paper, 259 x 368 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘27’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XCV 27’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This was a right-hand page from the sketchbook. Finberg’s proposal of Newark Abbey was based on comparison with the painting Newark Abbey on the Wey (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut)1 which he thought ‘seems based on this sketch’, and Butlin and Joll describe the drawing as a ‘study for the picture’, the viewpoint in both being from Pyrford Mill. However, Hill disputes this, judging that ‘apart from the boat at the right the resemblance is general’ and listing the drawing among unidentified subjects from the sketchbook.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.51 no.65 (pl.75).
Verso:
Laid down, but with window for inscriptions in pencil ‘Newark Abbey on Wey’ and ‘?’u | m 95’.

David Blayney Brown
February 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Barges at a Lock 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2009, 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-barges-at-a-lock-r1129963, accessed 19 April 2024.