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 ... > Mortlake and Pulborough Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother 1825
D18747
Turner Bequest CCXIII 23
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 187 mm
Part watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Timber’ centre left, ‘w’ on mill left of centre, ‘C[...]’ below right of centre, and ‘Green’, ‘B’ and ‘yellow’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘23’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXIII – 23’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject was identified by Ian Warrell; the watermill stands on the north bank of the River Rother south of the village of Fittleworth, about three miles south-east of Petworth, but is much altered. It is also seen in a gouache and pen and ink drawing of the type usually associated with Turner’s 1827 visit to Petworth but perhaps a little earlier (Tate D24606; Turner Bequest CCLIX 41).1 In the present sketch there are barges on the river and an annotated detail of one at the lower right. The mill appears again on the verso and on folio 24 recto (D18748, D18749).
The sequence of sketches between folio 17 verso (D18736) and (apparently) folio 26 recto (D18753), and possibly 26 verso (D18754), comprises Sussex subjects in the vicinity of Petworth. For a note on Lord Egremont, Petworth, and Turner’s work there, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
See Ian Warrell in Butlin, Luther and Warrell 1989, pp.118, 123 note 101.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother 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-fittleworth-mill-on-the-river-rother-r1172869, accessed 23 April 2024.