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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Severn Valley, Chester and Peak District ... > Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Man and Cows beside a River or Lake; Chester and the River Dee from near Grosvenor Bridge ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Man and Cows beside a River or Lake; Chester and the River Dee from near Grosvenor Bridge’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 64 Verso:
A Man and Cows beside a River or Lake; Chester and the River Dee from near Grosvenor Bridge ?1831
D22270
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 64a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main view shows a man standing with bowed head contre-jour below the sun and above what appears from slight indications of reflections to be a lake or river, in which cattle are standing. Finberg’s identification of him as a fisherman is plausible if unproven, while the low hills (perhaps with woods beyond), give no clue as to the location, presumably somewhere along the route of Turner’s Midlands travels. For other figure studies in this sketchbook, including some of anglers, see the entry for inside the front cover (D41053).
At the top left, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is a continuation of the Old Dee Bridge and buildings on the south bank of the Dee at Chester, from the view drawn near the new Grosvenor Bridge on folio 65 verso (D22272).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Man and Cows beside a River or Lake; Chester and the River Dee from near Grosvenor Bridge ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, 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-a-man-and-cows-beside-a-river-or-lake-chester-and-the-river-r1148916, accessed 26 April 2024.