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 ... > Thames Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Thames from Richmond Hill’ c.1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 88 Verso:
The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825
D18699
Turner Bequest CCXII 88a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 188 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...] Red’ top centre and ‘[?Blue]’ top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the curve of the River Thames is seen from Richmond Hill; see under folio 5 verso (D18603) for other views in this sketchbook and related works. Here, a group of figures is shown down the hill to the left, while the zigzag strokes beside them characteristically indicate a pine tree.
The present drawing is among those which would have generally informed two watercolours: Richmond Hill of about 1825 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),1 engraved in 1826 for the Literary Souvenir (Tate impression: T06132); and Richmond Terrace, Surrey of about 1836 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool),2 engraved in 1838 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04611, T06128). Both include people at leisure; the Literary Souvenir version features the back view of an elegant woman seated in the right foreground, possibly relating to the rapid figure study at the top right here.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.359 no.518, pl.135; see also Shanes 2000, p.180.
2
Wilton 1979, p.403 no.879, reproduced; see also Shanes 1979, p.156, and Shanes 2004, p.128.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825 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-the-river-thames-from-richmond-hill-r1172818, accessed 24 April 2024.