Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of a Tall Tree, Probably near the St Germans or Lynher River 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Recto:
Study of a Tall Tree, Probably near the St Germans or Lynher River 1814
D09713
Turner Bequest CXXXIII 37
Turner Bequest CXXXIII 37
Pencil on white wove paper, 178 x 110 mm
Part watermark ‘Fell | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘37’ top right, and ‘294’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIII 37’ bottom right
Part watermark ‘Fell | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘37’ top right, and ‘294’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIII 37’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (407d, untitled).
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.276, 628 no.407, as one of ‘Five Studies’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.377, CXXXIII 37, as ‘Study of a tree’.
1974
Gerald Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A. 1802–20: Genius of the Romantic, London 1974, reproduced p.133.
1974
Andrew Wilton, ‘Turner’s Drawings and Watercolours’ in Martin Butlin, Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.24.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, pp.126, 134 note 31.
1987
Sam Smiles, ‘Turner in Devon: Some Additional Information Concerning his Visits in the 1810s’, Turner Studies, vol.7, no.1, Summer 1987, p.14 note 32.
1995
Ian Warrell, Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.28, 30 note 112, as ‘NG 407[d]’, fig.17 (bottom left).
2001
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk, Research/Feasibility Study for Gunnislake Turner Trail, [Gunnislake] 2001, p.27, reproduced, among ‘Sketches relating to “Crossing the Brook”’.
Andrew Wilton has described the tree studies here and in the 1813 Plymouth, Hamoaze sketchbook (Tate D09344, D09345; Turner Bequest CXXXI 117a, 118) as ‘rare in their particularization’,1 while the present drawing and the double-page sketch on folios 35a–36 (D09711, D09712) are ‘a rare exception’, when Turner actually ‘stop[ped] to sketch a tree’.2
John Ruskin described the present drawing as ‘indeed the theme afterwards amplified into the beautiful group on the left in “Crossing the Brook”’,3 referring to the major painting of that title, exhibited in 1815 (Tate N00497),4 showing the Devon-Cornwall border along the River Tamar; the most important studies for it are in the Vale of Heathfield sketchbook (including Tate D10273; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 47a). Ian Warrell reproduces a photograph showing the present page, folio 45 recto (D09722) and five miscellaneous studies from other sketchbooks, mounted together as frame 16 in Ruskin’s 1858 selection of Turner Bequest works exhibited at Marlborough House.5 The tree here is not the direct source for the painting, which shows a group of three on the left, but it is similar. Although it is shown in isolation, it was probably sketched south of the St Germans or Lynher River opposite Trematon Castle, the subjects of adjacent drawings; see under folio 27 verso (D09700).
Catalogue of the Sketches and Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Exhibited in Marlborough House in the Year 1857–8 in Cook and Wedderburn 1904, p.276; see also Smiles 1987, p.14 note 32.
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.93–4 no.130, pl.123 (colour).
Technical notes:
The sheet is much browned through prolonged display; there is an unaffected margin all round where it was protected by the mount.
Verso:
Blank. There is a small brown stain at the top left.
Matthew Imms
July 2014
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Study of a Tall Tree, Probably near the St Germans or Lynher River 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www