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

Finberg characterised this slight but radiant ‘colour beginning’ as a mere ‘lay in’,1 although there has been slight development at the right-hand edge of the ochre band suggesting the bank of a river or lake, with darker vertical and horizontal strokes indicating some form of structure or building.

As well as categorising it among ‘River Scenes, Unidentified’, Eric Shanes has also mentioned Blenheim Palace as a possible subject, without further comment.2 There are two ‘colour beginnings’ firmly associated with the finished watercolour Blenheim House and Park, Oxford of about 1832 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery),3 based on 1830 drawings and engraved in 1833 for Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04599, T04600, T06101). Of these, Tate D25488 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 365) is clearly directly related, while Tate D25489 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 366) represents an alternative view.

The sunlit slope across the lake in D25489 is loosely comparable in effect with the setting here, but the position of Blenheim Palace on the distant skyline, as against the immediate waterside situation of the buildings here, appears to render any slight resemblance fortuitous, and a specific identification of the present study remains elusive. Compare the equally slight Tate D25496 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 373) in the present section.

Technical notes:

The sheet is somewhat stained at the bottom centre.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed by ?John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB 150 P | O’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII | 147’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 147’ bottom right. The right-hand two fifths are stained darker, this area being defined by a dark, straight edge.