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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Cyfarthfa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Bend of a River with a Tower on a Wooded Hill at Sunset 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Bend of a River with a Tower on a Wooded Hill at Sunset’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Bend of a River with a Tower on a Wooded Hill at Sunset 1798
D01648
Turner Bequest XLI 18a
Pencil and watercolour with stopping-out on white wove paper, 291 x 455 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left
Stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in brown ink ‘40’ bottom left
Inscribed in pencil ‘XLI – 18a’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLI – 18 a’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Despite the context of drawings at St Donat’s, this may be a view on the Wye, either above Chepstow or near Goodrich, with the castle just showing above the woods. For other views possibly of Goodrich in this book see D01662, D01663 and D01671 (Turner Bequest XLI 29, 30, 38). Turner had already drawn Goodrich on his earlier tour of South Wales, in 1795; see the South Wales sketchbook (Tate D00610; Turner Bequest XXVI 56).
The pencil drawing on the other side of the sheet (D01647; Turner Bequest XLI 18) was listed by Finberg as the recto, with this coloured study as the verso. Present practice is to treat the watercolour as the recto, which the blind stamp on this side suggests has long been the case.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Bend of a River with a Tower on a Wooded Hill at 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-the-bend-of-a-river-with-a-tower-on-a-wooded-hill-at-sunset-r1173264, accessed 27 April 2024.