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 > Wey, Guildford Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Capriccio of the Thames at Isleworth, with the Pavilion at Syon 1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Capriccio of the Thames at Isleworth, with the Pavilion at Syon’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
Capriccio of the Thames at Isleworth, with the Pavilion at Syon 1805
D06197
Turner Bequest XCVIII 13
Pen and ink and reddish-brown wash on white laid paper, 117 x 182 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XCVIII 13’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
See comment to folios 11, 12 and 14 of the sketchbook (D06195, D06196, D06198), depicting Isleworth riverside scenery of which this is a further variation. With 14 it is adapted from the more literal view seen in 11, looking from the water as if from a position near All Saints’ Church and the ferry at Isleworth, but with a more neo-classical feel and pseudo-antique boats on the river as if the Thames were mutating into an ancient harbour. However, Hill draws attention to a tree and wall to the left of Robert Mylne’s Pavilion in Syon Park, visible in 11 and 12 and also in watercolours in the contemporary Thames from Reading to Walton sketchbook (Tate D05916, D05952; Turner Bequest XCV 12, 48). Their recurrence shows them to have been extant features of the Isleworth landscape, adjacent to Turner’s own Sion (or Syon) Ferry House.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
July 2008

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Capriccio of the Thames at Isleworth, with the Pavilion at Syon 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, 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-capriccio-of-the-thames-at-isleworth-with-the-pavilion-at-r1130381, accessed 23 April 2024.