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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Farnley Hall and Yorkshire c.1808-24 > Woodcock Shooting Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Verses Concerning Love and Loss (Inscription by Turner) c.1812-13

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Verses Concerning Love and Loss (Inscription by Turner)’ c.1812-13
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
Verses Concerning Love and Loss (Inscription by Turner) c.1812–13
D09120
Turner Bequest CXXIX 44
Pencil on white wove paper, 178 x 110 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Trace of inscription by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘44 [?]’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CXXIX 44’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Written down the page from left to right, continued from folio 43 verso (D09119), Turner’s inscription reads, approximately:
Then oer hopes feel the blast
Till ... nature ... around
The ... drop the wounds
In ... charm self healing
So thus ... ... ...
Thus round the ... ... I
Look and ... die
Like the gay fly
Blow bottom to his eye
Sweet oer the cheek
The vermillion musk bloom
Italy inspiring
Hope oft [deleted] reflecting
Love directing
[and to the right of the previous stanza]
        cheek
The cheery muse stealing
Hope [?inspecting]
Joy reflecting
Love directing
[and below these passages]
Must our tongues speak
In love own love love revealing
Cause rememring
Grief subduing
Love returning whence
In man longing ...? speaks Love grief ... ...1
See notes to D09119 for these lines and a tentative connection with the death of Maria Grimston, the first wife of Walter Fawkes, on 10 December 1813.
1
The transcription here is indebted to, but differs in a number of respects from that offered by Rosalind Mallord Turner in Wilton and Mallord Turner 1990.
Verso:
Blank

David Hill
October 2008

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Verses Concerning Love and Loss (Inscription by Turner) c.1812–13 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-verses-concerning-love-and-loss-inscription-by-turner-r1146842, accessed 21 September 2024.