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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Wooded Landscape with a Road and Steps, Perhaps near the River Thames c.1823-4

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Recto:
A Wooded Landscape with a Road and Steps, Perhaps near the River Thames c.1823–4
D17864
Turner Bequest CCV 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 162 mm
Part watermark ‘lls | 1’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[L...]’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCV – 16’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Isolated among a long sequence of studies of the River Thames in the urban vicinity of Old London Bridge, this subject, a wooded landscape rapidly executed in soft pencil, is unidentified. It may be a scene in the Thames Valley west of London, perhaps idealised even as it was drawn; there are views around Richmond upon Thames early on in this sketchbook see the Introduction. Compare also the subject on folio 40 recto (D17903).
The low sun on the left, with rays emanating from it, may have reminded Turner of Claude Lorrain (c.1604–1682), an important influence,1 whose pictures featuring the sun itself he sometimes emulated. The monochrome watercolours later in this book may also owe something to Claude, as discussed in the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
See for instance Ian Warrell and others, Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 2012.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Wooded Landscape with a Road and Steps, Perhaps near the River Thames 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-a-wooded-landscape-with-a-road-and-steps-perhaps-near-the-r1172575, accessed 29 March 2024.