Joseph Mallord William Turner

Views with Hills and Distant Buildings

1840

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Venice; Passau to Würzburg Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 126 × 198 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D31375
Turner Bequest CCCX 50 a

Catalogue entry

With the page used horizontally both ways, there are at least three sketches here, with hills and distant buildings, likely including castles and towns. They are among the few in this sketchbook to remain unidentified (see the Introduction), and Cecilia Powell has briefly noted that they were ‘made while travelling’.1 Passau is shown on many adjacent pages (see under folio 48 verso; D31371), but the sequence of drawings does not always reflect Turner’s overall route.

See Powell 1995, p.243.

Technical notes:

There is some brown staining at the gutter, offset to or from folio 51 recto opposite (D31376), and perhaps dating from the 1928 Tate Gallery flood.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

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