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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Chester Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Distant View of Saddleback, with Sheep and Cattle in the Foreground 1801

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Distant View of Saddleback, with Sheep and Cattle in the Foreground’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
?Distant View of Saddleback, with Sheep and Cattle in the Foreground 1801
D05106
Turner Bequest LXXXII 29
Pencil on white wove paper, 161 x 256 mm
Watermark ‘1794’ (trimmed)
Inscribed in pencil ‘26’ bottom right, descending vertically
Blind–stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘29’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXXII – 29’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally, and may show Skiddaw (931 metres) from the south, but if the identification is correct, Turner must have travelled south east from Penrith to Keswick, thence south to Borrowdale, and climbed up to Watendlath, if not to High Seat (609 metres) to obtain this view of the famous mountain. The journey would have involved a considerable detour from his most probable route, from Penrith to Ullswater and Ambleside. It seems more likely that this is in fact Blencathra, or Saddleback (868 metres), which Turner could have seen from the Penrith road which he probably took on his way south via Ullswater to Windermere.
For the context of the subject, see under folio 27 recto (D05104).
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘?Distant View of Saddleback, with Sheep and Cattle in the Foreground 1801 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 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-distant-view-of-saddleback-with-sheep-and-cattle-in-the-r1178675, accessed 24 April 2024.