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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Kenilworth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Chinese Fishing Temple beside Virginia Water c.1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Chinese Fishing Temple beside Virginia Water’ c.1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 75 Recto:
The Chinese Fishing Temple beside Virginia Water c.1827
D22116
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 73
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘73’ bottom left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 73’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this view to the north-west across Virginia Water continues across folio 74 verso opposite (D22115; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 72a), where a footbridge and other buildings are seen. Here the Chinese Fishing Temple (now gone) is seen obliquely on its moated island on the northern shore of the lake.
As Finberg noted,1 this is the main basis of the watercolour Virginia Water of about 1829 (private collection),2 one of two engraved for The Keepsake in 1830 (Tate impressions: T04618, T06141). For other views around Virginia Water, see under folio 73 verso (D22113; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 71a).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.732.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.359 no.519, pl.141 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Chinese Fishing Temple beside Virginia Water c.1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, 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-the-chinese-fishing-temple-beside-virginia-water-r1148757, accessed 26 April 2024.