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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Sandycombe Lodge c.1808-12 > Windmill and Lock Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Urn and Sculpted Flames at the Top of the Monument, London, from Below c.1808-11

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Urn and Sculpted Flames at the Top of the Monument, London, from Below’ c.1808-11
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Recto:
The Urn and Sculpted Flames at the Top of the Monument, London, from Below circa 1808–11
D08002
Turner Bequest CXIV 31
Pencil on white wove paper, 117 x 87 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘31’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXIV – 31’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Maurice Davies relates this and the studies on folios 12 verso–13 recto, 17 recto, 19 verso, 20 recto and 34 recto (D07977, D07978, D07985, D07988, D07989, D08005) to Turner’s first perspective lecture, delivered at the Royal Academy in January 1811 (see the Introduction to the sketchbook); Turner discussed the ‘flaming ball’ surmounting the Monument, and the distance from the base at ground level from which it could be viewed,1 in relation to his large watercolour diagram ‘4’ showing both the whole structure and the upper stages from below (Tate D17122; Turner Bequest CXCV 151). For further details of the Monument see under folio 12 verso (D07977).
1
Davies pp.32, 106 note 8; Davies 1994, p.290.
Technical notes:
There are irregular, swirling areas of thicker paper and adjacent thinner areas which appear to have been a manufacturing fault, also evident on folios 32, 36 and 46 (D08003, D08007–D08008, D08019).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
January 2012

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Urn and Sculpted Flames at the Top of the Monument, London, from Below c.1808–11 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2012, 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-the-urn-and-sculpted-flames-at-the-top-of-the-monument-r1134778, accessed 20 September 2024.