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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > England and Wales Colour Studies c.1825 ... > Studies for Published 'England and ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Blenheim Palace and Park c.1830-2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Blenheim Palace and Park’ c.1830-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Blenheim Palace and Park c.1830–2
D25489
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 366
Watercolour on white wove paper, 459 x 591 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII 366’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Finberg suggested, this seems to be ‘another’ colour study of Blenheim Palace, near Oxford, and its extensive park, with reference to the alternative view (Tate D25488; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 365) which directly informed the finished watercolour Blenheim House and Park, Oxford of about 1832 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery),1 engraved in 1833 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04599, T04600, T06101). The view is to the south-east, across the lake, and relates to two double-page pencil drawings in the 1830 Kenilworth sketchbook (Tate D21981–D21984; Tate CCXXXVIII 4a–5, 5a–6).2 Eric Shanes has described the present view as ‘idealised’, while D25488 would provide the ‘dramatic components and pictorial architecture’ of a figure scene exploring contemporary ‘class differences and social stress’.3
See also the introductions to the present subsection of identified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this work has been assigned.
There are unrelated watercolour studies on the verso (D40489).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.399 no.846, pl.194.
2
As noted in Shanes 1997, p.53.
3
Shanes 1997, p.19; see also p.53.
Technical notes:
Eric Shanes notes the localised application of stopping-out varnish ‘on the far side of the lake to the left’.1

Matthew Imms
March 2013

1
Shanes 1997, p.53.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Blenheim Palace and Park c.1830–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-blenheim-palace-and-park-r1144239, accessed 19 September 2024.