Joseph Mallord William Turner

London: St Dunstan-in-the-East and the Custom House from the Thames

c.1805–6

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Hesperides (1) Sketchbook
Medium
Pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
Support: 171 × 262 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D05788
Turner Bequest XCIII 14

Catalogue entry

For Turner’s views of the Pool and City of London in this sketchbook see note to folio 12 (D05785).
For views including the church of St Dunstan-in-the-East see folio 13 (D05786). This busy scene, crowded with barges and lighters and itself observed from a boat, includes the Custom House; another view, from a position further to the left, is on folio 15 (D05789). This is the Custom House as rebuilt by Thomas Ripley, 1715–27. As rebuilt again by David Laing, 1813–17, it appears in Turner’s watercolour of about 1825 (Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada)1 made for engraving in Views in London and its Environs. By deft use of wash, Turner wonderfully conveys shadow and reflections on the river.
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, pp.358–9 no.516 as ‘untraced’.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

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