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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Val d'Aosta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Sketches: Shakespeare's Monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon (with Inscription by Turner); Arvier in the Val d'Aosta 1833 and 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Sketches: Shakespeare's Monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon (with Inscription by Turner); Arvier in the Val d'Aosta’ 1833 and 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Verso:
Two Sketches: Shakespeare’s Monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon (with Inscription by Turner); Arvier in the Val d’Aosta 1833 and 1836
D29191
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 81a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains two sketches:
i. (main sketch, drawn inverted in relation to main numbered sequence of subjects in the sketchbook) Shakespeare’s Monument, in the Sanctuary of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon- Avon; Turner has transcribed most of the inscription on the tablet, as follows:
Ivdicio Pylium, Genio [/] Socratem, arte Maronem,
[omits next line ‘Terra tegit, Populus Maeret, Olympus habet’]
[Original all in caps] Stay Pass [enger] why Goest Thou by so fast [?]
Read if thou canst whom Envious Death Hath Plast
Within this Monument Shakespeare with whom[e],
Quick Nature Did Whose Name Doth Deck ys Tomb,
Far more than Cost Sith al, y he Hath writt,
Leaves Living Art But page to serve his witt.

Obit ano do 1616
Aetatis 53 Die 23 April [the original reads Apr.]
See Introduction to the sketchbook for the presence of a small run of sketches at Stratford dating from 1833, as well as the majority of subjects dating from 1836 including the following.
ii. (left, with page held upright) The first sight of Arvier, looking down the Val d’Aosta, to Mont Emilius. This sketch can be related to the watercolour known as Tête Noire (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin).1

David Hill
June 2010

1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.473 no.1441.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Two Sketches: Shakespeare’s Monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon (with Inscription by Turner); Arvier in the Val d’Aosta 1833 and 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-sketches-shakespeares-monument-in-holy-trinity-church-r1144739, accessed 23 September 2024.