Joseph Mallord William Turner Leeds from Beeston Hill 1816
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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Recto:
Leeds from Beeston Hill 1816
D09884
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 80
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 80
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘x [...]’ towards top left, and ‘x’ directly below within drawing
Inscribed in pencil ‘Sketch of the Town of Leeds.’ to right of drawing, ascending vertically, and ‘CXXXIV. 79 – 80’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 79 – 80’ bottom right
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘x [...]’ towards top left, and ‘x’ directly below within drawing
Inscribed in pencil ‘Sketch of the Town of Leeds.’ to right of drawing, ascending vertically, and ‘CXXXIV. 79 – 80’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 79 – 80’ 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 (525 (a)).
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.254 no.11, 633 no.525 (a), as ‘Sketch of the Town of Leeds’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.383, CXXXIV 80, as ‘Sketch of the town of Leeds’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.82 under no.186.
1974
Gerald Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A. 1802–20: Genius of the Romantic, London 1974, reproduced p.145 (cropped to edge of drawing).
1977
Christopher White, English Landscape 1630–1850: Drawings, Prints & Books from the Paul Mellon Collection, exhibition catalogue, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven 1977, p.77 and note 2 under no.136.
1977
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner Sketches 1789–1820, London 1977, reproduced p.135 (cropped to edge of drawing).
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.362 under no.544.
1982
Louis Hawes, Presences of Nature: British Landscape 1780–1830, exhibition catalogue, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven 1982, p.200 under no.VI.26.
1983
Francis W. Hawcroft, ‘The Most Beautiful Art of England’: An Exhibition of Fifty British Watercolours, c.1750–1850, to Celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Friends of the Whitworth, exhibition catalogue, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1983, p.[72] under no.31.
1984
David Hill, In Turner’s Footsteps: Through the Hills and Dales of Northern England, London 1984, p.104, as 1816.
1986
Stephen Daniels, ‘The Implications of Industry: Turner and Leeds’, Turner Studies, vol.6, no.1, Summer 1986, p.10, as probably 1816, p.11 ill.2.
1989
Ann Chumbley and Ian Warrell, Turner and the Human Figure: Studies of Contemporary Life, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1989, p.46 under no.43.
1997
William S. Rodner, J.M.W. Turner: Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution, Berkeley and London 1997, p.87, fig.36 (cropped to drawing), as probably 1816.
1998
James Hamilton, Turner and the Scientists, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, pp.92, p.140 no.79, fig.94 (cropped to edge of original sheet).
2008
David Hill, Turner and Leeds: Image of Industry, Leeds 2008, pp.109, 114–36, ill.96 (colour), as 1816.
As has long been recognised,1 this is a brief continuation of the detailed view of Leeds looking north from Beeston Hill on folio 48 verso opposite (D09883; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 79), faithfully followed in Turner’s 1816 watercolour Leeds (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).2 See the entry for D09883 for extensive discussion.
In the distance on the left here, continued from the opposite page, are the kilns, chimney and windmill of the Leeds Pottery.3 The last building, at the right-hand end of the panorama and exclude from the subsequent watercolour, is the 1790s Low Fold Mill in the Bank area of Leeds, one of the earliest cotton mills in the town and later a carpet factory.4
Technical notes:
The right-hand section (108 mm) of the original sheet is missing, and has been made good with slightly darker paper. The inscriptions are at the edge of the remnant of the original sheet. The drawing is continuous with D09883 opposite, and both were removed from the sketchbook, mounted and exhibited.
There is a broad, well-preserved margin to the right of the drawing and undamaged strips above and below which were protected by the mount, but the exposed area has darkened. At the head and foot of the margin are small repaired tears, presumably made when the drawing was detached from a backing sheet to be rebound. The sketchbook was mutilated in a similar way to provide an exhibitable one-and-half-page view of Bolton Abbey, now bound as folios 10 verso and 11 recto (D09885, D09887; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 81–82).
Verso:
Blank. There are heavy glue stains at the top and bottom edges around the repaired tears.
Matthew Imms
July 2014
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Leeds from Beeston Hill 1816 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