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 > North Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Waterfall 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Waterfall’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 96 Recto:
A Waterfall 1798
D01460
Turner Bequest XXXIX 96
Pencil, watercolour and gouache on buff laid wrapping paper, 266 x 170 mm
Blind-stamped lower left with Turner Bequest monogram
Stamped in black ‘XXXIX 96’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This impressive waterfall is perhaps Swallow Falls, Rheadr Ewynnol, on the Llugwy two miles west of Betws y Coed. However, Finberg thought that the subject is ‘Probably the Rhayadr Dû, on the Black Cataract, near Ffestiniog’.1
Compare the waterfall studied on folio 47 recto (D01457; Turner Bequest XXXIX 93). The present leaf seems originally to have come after the leaf now bound as folio 48 recto (D01453; Turner Bequest XXXIX 89); see the concordance in the sketchbook’s Introduction.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.92.
Verso:
Blank, except for three parallel pencil strokes: ‘III’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Waterfall 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-waterfall-r1173691, accessed 24 April 2024.