?Richmond Hill and Bridge from the River Thames

c.1823–4

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: River Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 111 x 190 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D17785
Turner Bequest CCIV 9

Catalogue entry

This bucolic view is perhaps looking east from the Twickenham side over the River Thames to Richmond Hill, with Richmond Bridge just visible on the left. It is closely comparable with a pen and ink drawing in the 1805 Studies for Pictures: Isleworth sketchbook (Tate D05516; Turner Bequest XC 19). David Hill has written of the retrospective character of some of Turner’s Thames studies in the 1820s (see the sketchbook’s Introduction), when he still retained his self-designed Twickenham house Sandycombe Lodge, about half a mile south-west of the bridge.1 The view of the river just downstream at Isleworth on the verso (D17786), where Turner rented a house in 1805, adds weight to the identification of the present subject. What may be another Richmond Hill view is on folio 32 verso (D17815).

The outlines and tones here are largely executed in shades of monochrome wash. Although the waterline appears is continuous, it is unclear whether the pencil drawing immediately to its left on folio 8 verso (D17784) is part of the same scene or a separate study in the neighbourhood. For other London and Thames views, see under folio 2 recto (D17775).

See David Hill, Turner on the Thames: River Journeys in the Year 1805, New Haven and London 1993, pp.152–3.

Technical notes:

The leaf has been torn from the book at some stage and later restored.

Matthew Imms
November 2014

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