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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Petworth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Banks of the River Arun: Fishing 1809

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Banks of the River Arun: Fishing’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Banks of the River Arun: Fishing 1809
D07513
Turner Bequest CIX 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 228 x 375 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CIX 2’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing is similar to another from the same sketchbook, inscribed ‘Banks of Arun’ on its verso (D07514; Turner Bequest CIX 3). The Arun runs east of Petworth and very close to Fittleworth where Turner also used a sketchbook in 1809,1 to join the English Channel at Littlehampton. The figures must be anglers, judging by Turner’s note on the verso. See also a slight sketch of sportsmen, from the same sketchbook (D07512; Turner Bequest CIX 1). Turner may already have been taking part in the various activities laid on for guests at Petworth.
1
Frittlewell sketchbook (Tate D07755–D07852; D40804; Turner Bequest CXII).
Verso:
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Drawing our first pond’. Finberg gives an alternative reading of the last word as ‘bird’, which might suggest that the recto depicts duck-shooting, but the subject appears to be fishing.

David Blayney Brown
June 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Banks of the River Arun: Fishing 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-banks-of-the-river-arun-fishing-r1135627, accessed 24 April 2024.