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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > Old London Bridge Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Plants including Charlock and Dock c.1823-4

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Plants including Charlock and Dock’ c.1823-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Verso:
Studies of Plants including Charlock and Dock c.1823–4
D17835
Turner Bequest CCV 1a
Pencil on white wove paper, 162 x 98 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Charlick’ [sic] top left, ‘Dock’, ‘Beggar’s [?bind]’, ‘Cow parsley’, towards top, ‘Field Sorrel’ and ‘Marsh mallow’ and ‘7’ above centre, ‘5 and 2 | [?alternatly]’ towards bottom left, ‘Pink’ and ‘Cow Parsley’ towards bottom right, and ‘Plantains’, ‘Wild G ramsum’ [sic] and ‘Red Stalk’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, Turner has carefully drawn and labelled various wild plants: charlock (Sinapis arvensis, field or wild mustard), dock (genus Rumex), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), field sorrel (Rumex acetosella), marsh mallow (Althaea officinalis), plantain (Plantago major), and wild garlic or ramson (Allium ursinum). What appears to read ‘Beggar’s Bind’ may be another name for Beggarticks (genus Bidens). There is another plant study on folio 2 recto opposite (D17836).
Among other such occasional studies, which were potential material for the foregrounds of finished compositions, there is a sequence of similar sketches in the earlier Liber Notes (2) sketchbook; see under Tate D12131 (Turner Bequest CLIV a 5).1

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
For other examples see Warrell 1991, p.61.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Studies of Plants including Charlock and Dock c.1823–4 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-studies-of-plants-including-charlock-and-dock-r1172546, accessed 25 April 2024.