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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Marine subjects c.1803-14 > Spithead Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Men Hedging and Ditching 1807

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Men Hedging and Ditching’ 1807
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Recto:
Men Hedging and Ditching 1807
D06571
Turner Bequest C 47
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 118 x 187 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘47’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘C 47’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Slight and rapid as this sketch is (‘abbreviated’ is Forrester’s word), it served as the origin of the design (Tate D08151; Turner Bequest CXVII W) for the Liber Studiorum plate Hedging and Ditching. The trees, labourers and road winding into the distance are all indicated, albeit in the most summary fashion. The locale was not named in the plate, but must have been on the Portsmouth road, perhaps near Hindhead, where other sketches in this book were made.

David Blayney Brown
May 2006

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Men Hedging and Ditching 1807 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2006, 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-men-hedging-and-ditching-r1139105, accessed 26 April 2024.