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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Road by a River: Sunset 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 105 Recto:
A Road by a River: Sunset 1798
D01344
Turner Bequest XXXVIII 90
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 229 x 332 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘XXXVIII 90’ bottom left, descending vertically
This drawing is among the most beautiful in the Hereford Court sketchbook, but it is not possible to identify its subject. The scene is a winding road, apparently crossing a river on a low bridge, with a screen of trees beyond which a wide flat plain (or possibly the sea) is visible. There is little to suggest either Wales or the Welsh Marches, but there may be a connection with the inscription on the next sheet as bound now, folio 106 recto (D01248), which suggests that the view may be in Cheshire. Alternatively, the sheet may have been put to use later, when Turner was again in the south-east. The atmosphere of the drawing has much in common with some subjects in the contemporary Wilson sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest XXXVII).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Road by a River: Sunset 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, 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-road-by-a-river-sunset-r1173245, accessed 29 March 2024.