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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > County Durham and Northumberland 1817 > Raby Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Gibside from the River Derwent 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Gibside from the River Derwent’ 1817
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 8 Recto:
Gibside from the River Derwent 1817
D12270
Turner Bequest CLVI 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 232 x 328 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?water]’ bottom left, and ‘[?water]’ and ‘[?Riples]’ bottom centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘7’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLVI 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The castellated north front of Gibside is seen on the hill south of the Lady Haugh meadow beside the River Derwent, which flows from the south-west on the right; this side of the house is now screened by trees. The drawing, including part of the façade, continues a little way across folio 7 verso opposite (D40724). The continuation was not recognised by Finberg, who notes of the present sketch: ‘Apparently continued on another page, which is now missing.’1 The recto of the continuation (D12265) is CLVI 4, indicating either that the leaves of the book were bound in a different sequence or that some or all were loose at in Finberg’s time, since the continuity of the composition across the two pages as now bound is self-evident.
Further studies of Gibside and the surrounding landscape are on folios 6 verso–7 recto, and folios 8 verso to 11 verso (D40723, D12265, D12271, D12266, D12267–D12268, D12269, D12272, D12273; CLVI 3 verso–4, 7a, 5, 5a–6, 6a, 8, 8a). See the introduction to the tour and the entry for folio 6 verso (D40723) for more on the history of the house and estate.
1
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.447 under CLVI 7.
Technical notes:
The pencil number ‘7’ may obscure or reinforce John Ruskin’s customary red ink foliation, which is evident only faintly and intermittently in this much-rearranged book (see the introduction to the sketchbook).

Matthew Imms
February 2010

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Gibside from the River Derwent 1817 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2010, 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-gibside-from-the-river-derwent-r1139466, accessed 16 April 2024.