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 ... > Unidentified Subjects, Possibly for ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?A Distant Town c.1825-38

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Distant Town’ c.1825-38
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?A Distant Town c.1825–38
D25288
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 166
Watercolour on white wove paper, 307 x 488 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘166’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 166’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There is very little inherent in this luminous but very slight composition to identify it topographically. There appears to be a tower on the skyline towards the right, and there may possibly be other buildings at the centre. Eric Shanes has suggested this may be a colour study relating to the series of Turner’s watercolours engraved as Picturesque View in England and Wales (published 1827–38).1 Turner began delivering the finished watercolours early in 1825, hence the broad range date given here to the present sheet. See also the introductions to the present subsection of unidentified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which it has been assigned.
1
Shanes 1997, p.96.
Technical notes:
Finberg noted this sheet as being watermarked ‘1828’,1 but such no such mark is now apparent.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.827.
Verso:
Blank (laid down and not examined).

Matthew Imms
March 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Distant Town c.1825–38 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-a-distant-town-r1144360, accessed 20 April 2024.