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 > River and Margate Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sunset over the Thames: ?Harty Church 1805-9

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sunset over the Thames: ?Harty Church’ 1805-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Verso:
Sunset over the Thames: ?Harty Church 1805–9
D06517
Turner Bequest XCIX 90
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Grey’, ‘Warm’, ‘Shine’, ‘Warm light’ ‘Green’ and ‘Blue’ in sky and ‘Sun like an Egg yolk’ lower centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘90’ top left, inverted
Inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink ‘90’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XCIX 90’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Described by Finberg as the recto of ‘page 90’ of the sketchbook, this was later inserted as folio 28 verso. The church is low-lying, at river level; a barge is indicated at left. Compare also the even slighter sketch, probably with the same church, on folio 30 verso (D06402; Turner Bequest XCIX 26a). This might be the church at Harty, on the Isle of Harty, the south-easterly point of the Isle of Sheppey, seen from the Thames.

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Sunset over the Thames: ?Harty Church 1805–9 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-sunset-over-the-thames-harty-church-r1130593, accessed 20 September 2024.