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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > The Second Meuse-Moselle Tour 1839 > Cochem to Coblenz - Home Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Trees or Doodles 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Trees or Doodles’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Recto:
?Trees or Doodles 1839
D28641
Turner Bequest CCXCI 56
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 100 x 156 mm
Watermarked ‘[v d m]eulen’
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘56’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI–56’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
From this rather chaotic assemblage of lines, loops and hatching, Finberg suggests that Turner may be depicting a ‘Row of houses’.1 These markings could also represent trees, or even boat masts, or indeed they could amount to nothing more than doodles.
1
Finberg 1909, vol.II, p.930.
Technical notes:
There is a small puncture in the sheet towards bottom right, near the foliation detailed.
Verso:
Blank.

Alice Rylance-Watson
August 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘?Trees or Doodles 1839 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, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-trees-or-doodles-r1150925, accessed 25 April 2024.