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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > Tweed and Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ullswater: Looking through Trees towards the Head of the Lake 1797

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ullswater: Looking through Trees towards the Head of the Lake’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Recto:
Ullswater: Looking through Trees towards the Head of the Lake 1797
D01040
Turner Bequest XXXV 38
Pencil on white wove paper, 274 x 370 mm
Part watermark ‘E & P’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Do’ (i.e. ditto) bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXV 38’ bottom left, descending vertically
The subject was drawn with the page turned horizontally. The viewpoint is near Stybarrow Crag; Place Fell can be glimpsed rising steeply to the left. This is one of the most romantic of Turner’s Lakeland drawings, although he never selected it for development as a watercolour. The elegantly articulated screen of trees partially obscures the view up the lake which he recorded carefully in other studies in this sequence; see folio 51 recto (D01039; Turner Bequest XXXV 37), and for another view of the lake through trees, folio 57 recto (D01045; Turner Bequest XXXV 43).
Technical notes:
There is a slight grey smear towards the upper right, offset onto folio 51 verso opposite (the back of D01039; Turner Bequest XXXV 37).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed by A.J. Finberg in pencil ‘141.38’. There are water stains.

Andrew Wilton
August 2010

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Ullswater: Looking through Trees towards the Head of the Lake 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-ullswater-looking-through-trees-towards-the-head-of-the-lake-r1150216, accessed 18 April 2024.