Joseph Mallord William Turner

Inscription by Turner: A Draft List of Later ‘Liber Studiorum’ Subjects

?1815

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Liber Notes (1) Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 160 × 102 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D40871

Catalogue entry

The top third of the page is taken up with the following notes:
Glacus and Scylla – H
Ld Egremont Isis – EP
C Turner Inverary M
Twickenham Bridge – P
Daws Bonneville – E P or M
Glen crow Lupton – M
Eacus and Hippolita – H
Tempest – H
Church – A
The left-hand part of the first four lines is written over an earlier pencil calculation:
[...] 78 13 8
[...]446 ’ ’
[...]524
There appears to be another figure, possibly a ‘3’, in the thousands column of the total, but the left-hand part of the sum is illegible due to abrasion, staining and the subsequent inscription. The significance of the figures to the right is unclear.
The list comprises some of the later subjects from Turner’s Liber Studiorum print series (for a detailed overview see the introduction to the main Liber section of c.1806–24 in the present catalogue). The numbering in the concordance below is that of the standard Rawlinson and Finberg catalogues of the prints.1 The landscape categories corresponding with Turner’s initials are followed by cross-references to individual catalogue entries for related watercolour studies in the Turner Bequest when these exist; otherwise, brief notes are appended:
‘Glacus and Scylla – H’
Rawlinson/Finberg no.73: Glaucus and Scylla: Historical; unpublished; watercolour study: Tate D08170 (Vaughan Bequest CXVIII P)
‘Ld Egremont Isis – EP’
No.68: Isis: Elevated Pastoral; published 1819; watercolour study: Tate D08168 (Vaughan Bequest CXVIII N)
‘C Turner Inverary M’
No.65: Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland: Mountainous; engraving dated 1816 but published 1819; watercolour study: Tate D08165 (Turner Bequest CXVIII K)
‘Twickenham Bridge – P’
No.62: Water Cress Gatherers: Pastoral; published 1819; no watercolour study known: Gillian Forrester notes ‘artist’s proof touched in sepia and colours’ in an 1865 sale, now untraced; see Finberg2 and Forrester3 for further details. Also noted in ‘Pastoral’ list in Liber Notes (2) sketchbook (Tate D12160; Turner Bequest CLIV (a) 25a),4 and in Liber list inside back cover of Aesacus and Hesperie sketchbook (Tate D40933; Turner Bequest CLXIX).5

Matthew Imms
September 2013

1
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, Turner’s Liber Studiorum, A Description and a Catalogue, London 1878 and revised ed., London 1906; Alexander J. Finberg, The History of Turner’s Liber Studiorum with a New Catalogue Raisonné, London 1924.
2
Finberg 1924, pp.245–8 no.62.
3
Forrester 1996, p.124 no.62.
4
Ibid., p.161 (transcribed).
5
Ibid., p.163 (transcribed).
6
Finberg 1924, pp.273–6 no.69.
7
Forrester 1996, p.131 no.69.
8
Ibid., p.162 (transcribed).
9
Ibid., p.163 (transcribed).
10
Nicholson 1990, pp.149, 213 note 12.
11
As suggested in Finberg 1909, I, p.410.
12
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.13–15 no.15.
13
Forrester 1996 pp.149, 150 note 5, 160, 163
14
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.21 no.24, pl.22.
15
Finberg 1924, pp.277–80 no.70.
16
Forrester 1996, p.132 no.70.
17
Ibid., p.163 (transcribed).
18
Ibid., p.159.

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