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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Cheshire, Derbyshire, North Wales ... > Tabley No.2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fishermen in the River Dee near Corwen Bridge; Sketch for 'Trout Fishing in the Dee, Corwen Bridge and Cottage' 1808

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Fishermen in the River Dee near Corwen Bridge; Sketch for 'Trout Fishing in the Dee, Corwen Bridge and Cottage'’ 1808
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Verso:
Fishermen in the River Dee near Corwen Bridge; Sketch for ‘Trout Fishing in the Dee, Corwen Bridge and Cottage’ 1808
D06893
Turner Bequest CIV 28a
Pencil on white laid paper, 98 x 162 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted.
Finberg’s comments continue ‘See picture of “The Dee at Corwen Bridge,” in Turner’s Studio, 1809’ and Butlin and Joll describe this drawing as ‘a rough study’ for the picture shown in Turner’s Gallery that year, which was bought by the Earl of Essex (Taft Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio).1 There are other related drawings of the Dee at Corwen on folios 45 verso and 46 verso–47 of the sketchbook (D06914, D06916–D06917; Turner Bequest CIV 44a, 45a–46).
See Introduction to the sketchbook for Turner’s trip into North Wales from Tabley in 1808. Besides scenery, fishing was a major attraction for the artist and the Dee at Corwen is rich in trout. If Turner returned to Tabley from Wales with his sketchbook stocked with drawings, it is likely that Trout Fishing was begun there, which could account for reports by the painter Henry Thomson that Turner had ‘begun another picture’ – that is, in addition to his two pictures of Tabley2 – as first suggested by Finberg in his Life. As Sir John Leicester was also an enthusiastic angler, Turner may have hoped to interest him in the subject.

David Blayney Brown
May 2010

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.68 no.92 (pl.102).
2
Ibid., pp.70–1 nos.98, 99 (pls.106, 107).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Fishermen in the River Dee near Corwen Bridge; Sketch for ‘Trout Fishing in the Dee, Corwen Bridge and Cottage’ 1808 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-fishermen-in-the-river-dee-near-corwen-bridge-sketch-for-r1133649, accessed 25 April 2024.