Joseph Mallord William Turner

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

c.1808–18

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Liber Notes (2) Sketchbook [Finberg CLIV a]
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 112 x 89 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D12168
Turner Bequest CLIV a 29 a

Catalogue entry

With the page turned vertically, the upper half is taken up with the following list:
Architecture
Morpeth
Dunblaine
Thun
Basle
Lauffenbourg
Rivaulx Abbey
Soanes
Holy Island1
This is one of a series of working lists of subjects within the various categories of Turner’s Liber Studiorum series of landscape prints, running from folio 26 verso to folio 32 recto (D12160–D12171; Turner Bequest CLIV a 25a–31). An annotated version, with full details of the subjects and their publishing history, can be found in the present author’s overall Introduction to the section of this catalogue dealing with the watercolour studies for the Liber (c.1806–24).
A provisional list of the first ten parts of a projected twenty, each part comprising five prints drawn from different categories, runs from folio 24 verso to folio 25 verso (D12156–D12158; Turner Bequest CLIV a 23a, 24, 24a); this has been dated to 1808. Since some of the subjects in the category lists appear to have been added as late as 1818,2 the pages are all dated here to c.1808–18.

Matthew Imms
September 2013

1
See Forrester 1996, p.162 (transcription, followed here with slight variations)
2
Ibid., p.14.

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