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 Virginia Water with the Chinese Fishing Temple Beyond c.1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Virginia Water with the Chinese Fishing Temple Beyond’ c.1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 91 Verso:
Virginia Water with the Chinese Fishing Temple Beyond c.1827
D22148
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 89a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘rnard | 20’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the Chinese Fishing Temple (now gone) is seen on the north side of Virginia Water, with the entrance to Johnson’s Pond at the far right. The view continues westwards on folio 92 recto opposite (D22149; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 90).
The half-submerged form in the middle distance is a buoy, complete with a ring on its end, like those marked with St George’s crosses in the watercolour Virginia Water of about 1829 (private collection),1 one of two engraved for The Keepsake in 1830 (Tate impressions: T04618, T06141). In other respects the view on this page is comparable with that in the second watercolour of the same title (untraced)2 a head-on view from the south with Johnson’s Pond receding to the right of the pavilion (Tate impressions of engraving: T04616, T04617, T06140).
For other views around Virginia Water, see under folio 73 verso (D22113; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 71a).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.359 no.519, pl.141 (colour).
2
Ibid., no.520.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Virginia Water with the Chinese Fishing Temple Beyond 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-virginia-water-with-the-chinese-fishing-temple-beyond-r1148789, accessed 23 September 2024.