Catalogue entry
As Finberg noted, this series of rough sketches informs the watercolour of Blenheim (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery),
1 engraved as
Blenheim, Oxfordshire in 1833 for Turner’s
Picturesque Views in England and Wales. On the right is the south side of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s triumphal Woodstock Gate of 1723,
2 with its coupled Corinthian columns, as shown in a
repoussoir device at the right of the watercolour. There are slight indications of figures, of which there are a considerable number in the finished design. To the left are three tiers of rapid notations of the view south from that point to Vanbrugh’s Blenheim Palace, and south-west over Queen Pool to the Grand Bridge.
Of several preceding views of the park, Andrew Wilton and Eric Shanes have linked the double-page study on folios 11 verso–12 recto (
D21993,
D21994) to the watercolour, although the latter is not a direct transcription. There are also two ‘colour beginnings’: Tate
D25488 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 365) relates closely to the watercolour, and includes two hounds, prefiguring the pack shown there; Tate
D25489 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 366) is less topographically specific, but probably shows a different aspect of the park and lake, this time with deer in the foreground. Shanes has related the latter to the sketches on folios 4 verso–5 recto and 5 verso–6 recto (
D21981–D21984).
3For other views of Blenheim and the history of the site, see under folio 2 verso (
D21978).
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