Joseph Mallord William Turner

?Buckingham Palace

c.1828

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Identified or Likely Subjects, Possibly for ‘England and Wales’
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 346 × 511 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D25151
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 29

Technique and condition

This work by Turner is a watercolour sketch on a medium weight, cream wove paper. Titled Two Trees in a Landscape this work appears to be quite a quick and probably unfinished sketch. It is a quick impression that is made up with a combination of both fluid and dry scratchy marks. The shaping is modest and the brush strokes hurried. While Turner has applied quite fluid washes to pick out much of the image he has also applied the media quite dry in the more defining areas. The coverage is also quite sparse. Large areas of the support either free of media or covered only with a very fine wash.

The support had a tendency to bow concavely (vertically). It's likely that this was a result of the adhesive that adhered it to the secondary support contracting and forcing the support to bow slightly. There was no apparent reason why a secondary support was added. The primary support did not seem to benefit from its presence. While acknowledging a number of very faint foxing spots this work is in good condition.

Jo Gracey
June 2001