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 Blacksmith Shoeing a Horse 1807

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Blacksmith Shoeing a Horse’ 1807
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 58 Recto:
Blacksmith Shoeing a Horse 1807
D06583
Turner Bequest C 53
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 118 x 187 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘53’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘C 53’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
A further, rather more elaborate scene in a blacksmith’s shop is on folio 59 of the sketchbook (D06584; Turner Bequest C 54). Turner had exhibited A Country Blacksmith Disputing upon the Price of Iron, and the Price Charged to the Butcher for Shoeing his Poney (Tate N00478)1 at the 1807 Royal Academy, so the subject, and its intended competition with the rustic narratives painted by David Wilkie, must have been fresh in his mind later in the year on his way to or from Portsmouth. The scenes of rural life in this sketchbook could also have been used for Wilkie-like pictures.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.52–3 no.68 (pl.78).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
May 2006

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Blacksmith Shoeing a Horse 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-blacksmith-shoeing-a-horse-r1139117, accessed 24 April 2024.