Joseph Mallord William Turner

Inscription by Turner: List of North of England Place Names

?1797

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Wilson Sketchbook
Medium: Gouache, graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 113 x 93 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D01244
Turner Bequest XXXVII 127

Catalogue entry

The page is inscribed, inverted relative to the foliation:

[...]                    Howden
[?Sta[m]ford]   Ely
[...]
[?Lincoln]         York
[...]                      Knares[borough]
[?...y]                 Rippon            Selby
[?Mon Ch] Dunstanborough
[?Barrow Ch]   Richmond        [?Swale]
[...]                      Durham
[...]
     ([...]
8  ([...]
      (Beverly

The left-hand list is almost completely illegible. The north-country place-names that figure here support the supposition that Turner was planning his 1797 tour to Northumberland and the Lakes when the book was in use, and lend some plausibility to the theory that he actually took it with him on that journey, using at least one page to record a northern subject; see the view apparently at Dunstanburgh on folios 46 verso–47 recto (D01211–D01212; Turner Bequest XXXVII 94–95).

Andrew Wilton
September 2012

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