A Group of Trees

1801

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Scotch Figures Sketchbook
Medium
Dimensions: Support: 156 x 92 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D03622
Turner Bequest LIX 181 a

Catalogue entry

The drawing is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. There is another study of trees on folio 182 verso (D03624). For Turner’s interest in trees during his 1801 Scottish tour, see the Introduction to the Scotch Lakes sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest LVI). However, these studies may have been made at about the same time as the canal drawings on folios 183 verso, 184 verso and 185 verso (D03626, D03628, D03630), that is, probably in Yorkshire.

The strongly tonal technique of these two drawings may be related to the experimental ‘Scottish Pencils’ sheets associated with this tour (Tate; Turner Bequest LVIII).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

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