after Joseph Mallord William Turner

Catalogue entry

T04786 Tynemouth Priory, from ‘Dr Broadley's Poems’ engr. W. Miller

Line-engraving 67 × 98 (2 5/8 × 3 7/8) touched with pencil on India paper laid on wove paper 435 × 299 (17 1/8 × 11 3/4); plate-mark 288 × 176 (11 5/16 × 6 7/8)
Inscribed in pencil by Turner on India paper ‘No second proof sent’ and in a later hand below plate-mark ‘? Biske Sale Sotheby 5 July 1895 Lot 25’. Engraved inscription: ‘J.M.W. Turner R.A.’ below image b.l., ‘William Miller.’ below image b.r.; Turner studio blind stamp b.r. of image Purchased (Grant-in-Aid) 1986
Prov: Artist's sale, Christie's 24 July 1874 (475); ...; ? anon. sale, Sotheby's 5 July 1895 (see text below); ...; N.W. Lott and H.J. Gerrish Ltd, from whom bt by Tate Gallery
Lit: Rawlinson II 1913, no.641, touched engraver's proof

Engraver's proof of plate apparently printed privately in Dr Broadley's Poems, circa 1844, and reprinted in Art and Song, 1867, p.13, to accompany the anonymous poem, ‘The Northern Star: A Tynemouth Ship’. Original watercolour: private collection (Wilton 1979, no.545; Wilton records that another view of Tynemouth Priory, his no.888, formed the basis for this engraving, although the watercolour listed as no.545 is clearly the original design). For details of the series see introduction to T05183-T05186 below.

The print has been touched primarily by means of scratching-out, particularly on the sails and on the front of the fishing-boat on the left. The impression is also heavily touched in pencil, particularly on the right-hand ship as well as on the waves.

According to Rawlinson, there was only one touched proof of this plate and that was in his own collection. He states that it bore a ‘characteristic message to the engraver: “M^r Miller will have the goodness to recollect he has not sent M^r Turner the two proofs of M^r Moon's plate of Modern Italy.”’ However, T04786 is obviously another touched proof that was not known to Rawlinson. It is inscribed in Turner's hand ‘No second proof sent’, apparently continuing the correspondence with Miller.

The print is annotated as having been sold at Sotheby's on 5 July 1895, but lot 25 in this unnamed sale of engravings comprised ‘Small Caricatures, coloured’; either the date or the lot number must be erroneous.

Published in:
Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1986-88, London 1996

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