Joseph Mallord William Turner

Vignette Study of Trees and Crowded Figures; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Watercolours Related to The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell
Medium
Watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 181 x 227 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D27564
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 47

Catalogue entry

The work was once part of a parcel of studies described by John Ruskin as ‘A.B. 40. PO. Vignette beginnings, once on a roll. Worthless’.1 For an explanation of his meaning of ‘once on a roll’ see the technical notes above. Finberg records how Ruskin later described his phrasing in a letter to Ralph Nicholson Wornum as ‘horrible’, adding ‘I never meant it to be permanent’.2
1
Finberg 1909, vol.II, p.894.
2
Ibid., vol.I, p.xi.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower has noted that this study is made on off-white low-grade machine-made cartridge paper. The maker is unknown and there is no watermark. This paper would have been relatively cheap to buy and could have been purchased from a colourman, cut off from a roll to the desired size. Turner has used the ‘felt’ side of the paper which has slightly more texture than the ‘wire’ side, allowing better adhesion of pigment and graphite to the surface of the sheet. Many of Turner’s vignette studies were made on a similar grade of machine-made paper, and the artist employed the ‘felt’ side on all of them.1
1
Bower 1999, p.59.
Verso:
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘AB 40 P | O’ bottom right

Meredith Gamer
August 2006

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Left Right
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study of Figures below Trees; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study of Figures below Trees; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study of Figures; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study of Figures; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study; ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study; ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study; ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study; ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study of Figures for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study of Figures for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study, possibly of military figures; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study, possibly of military figures; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study; ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study; ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study; for ?Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–36

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study; for ?Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–36
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study of Sky, Trees and Figures; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study of Sky, Trees and Figures; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study of a Figure in a Garden; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study of a Figure in a Garden; for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study: ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study: ?for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’; Preparatory Study of Two Seated Figures’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’; Preparatory Study of Two Seated Figures

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study, possibly for ‘Gertrude of Wyoming’ for ‘Campbell’s Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study, possibly for ‘Gertrude of Wyoming’ for ‘Campbell’s Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study for ‘Kosciusko’, for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study for ‘Kosciusko’, for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’

c.1835–6
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study; for ?Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’ or Rogers’s ‘Poems’’ c.1835–6

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study; for ?Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’ or Rogers’s ‘Poems’

c.1835–6
View by appointment