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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Cassiobury Park and Harvest Pictures ... > Harvest Home Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Large Barn, with Tenants and a Steward or Agent c.1807-10

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Large Barn, with Tenants and a Steward or Agent’ c.1807-10
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Large Barn, with Tenants and a Steward or Agent circa 1807–10
D05353
Turner Bequest LXXXVI 3
Pencil on white wove paper, 258 x 370 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXXVI 3’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
A slight sketch, evidently taken from life, related to Turner’s unfinished painting Harvest Home (Tate N00562).1 As in the picture, but not in the separate composition study (Tate D08216; Turner Bequest CXX C), these figures are seen inside a barn with an open door in the background. On the right in the painted version, farm workers and tenants are seen queuing to receive (not pay as Finberg implied) gold coins, presumably wages or a harvest bonus, dispensed by the steward or agent sketched here. Folios 5 verso and 6 (D05357, D05358) of this sketchbook also have studies of groups of figures surrounding a similar official.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.128 no.209 (pl.208).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
December 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Large Barn, with Tenants and a Steward or Agent c.1807–10 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-large-barn-with-tenants-and-a-steward-or-agent-r1133583, accessed 25 April 2024.