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 A Party of Figures among Trees by the River Thames; Studies of Billowing Sails 1823-4

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Party of Figures among Trees by the River Thames; Studies of Billowing Sails’ 1823-4 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back Cover:
A Party of Figures among Trees by the River Thames; Studies of Billowing Sails 1823–4
D40965
Turner Bequest
Pencil on white wove paper, 162 x 98 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘green L[...]’, ‘[?Figures in ...]’, ‘Red cloak’, ‘Light’ and ‘Thames’ within drawing toward top, and ‘English Fete Champetre’ below it
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The rapid notations of sails were perhaps made in the Pool of London on the River Thames below Old London Bridge, the locale for most of the sketches in this book; see the Introduction.
With the page turned vertically, in the outer quarter is a scene of figures among trees, perhaps above a river bank with small boats. Whether observed in reality or from imagination, the scene is labelled an ‘English Fete Champetre’. This evokes the Old Master fête champêtre genre of graceful outdoor gatherings, perhaps associated most in Turner’s mind with the work of the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721),1 whose special variation, the fancy-dress fête galante, was echoed in the major 1819 painting England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent’s Birthday (Tate N00502),2 which includes elegant figures in a sylvan riverside setting.
There are identified views around Richmond at the beginning of this sketchbook, and others at this end likely to be in the vicinity; again, see the Introduction, and also the ‘wood nymphs’ on folio 42 recto (D17907).

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
See Michael Kitson, ‘Watteau, Jean-Antoine (1684–1721)’ in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (eds.), The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, pp.372–3.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.106–7 no.140, pl.145 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Party of Figures among Trees by the River Thames; Studies of Billowing Sails 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-party-of-figures-among-trees-by-the-river-thames-studies-r1172627, accessed 19 April 2024.