J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner A View of a Wooded Landscape, Possibly at Amberley c.1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A View of a Wooded Landscape, Possibly at Amberley’ c.1830
Folio 7 Recto:
A View of a Wooded Landscape, Possibly at Amberley c.1830
D22790
Turner Bequest CCXLV 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘[?Amberley]’ top right
Inscribed in red ink ‘7’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXLV – 7’ top left, upside down
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In his 1909 Inventory of the Turner Bequest, A.J. Finberg identified the sketch on this page, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, as a view of Amersham, a town in the Chiltern Hills, north-west of London.1 This was presumably inspired by the artist’s inscription, as opposed to any topographical detail. More recently, Turner scholar Ian Warrell has suggested the real subject might be Amberley, a small village in West Sussex, which certainly makes more sense in terms of the sketchbook’s wider context.2 The word is arguably more reminiscent of Amersham, but neither is an accurate match, and it is also possible that Turner’s rushed attempt to note down the name of an unfamiliar place led to a phonetical error.
The study, which may possibly comprise of several separate drawings, appears to record a view of a landscape within a wooded valley. There are several buildings in the foreground and towards the left. Although a precise location has not been determined, the topography of the region around Amberley, which is on the River Arun, is broadly in line with the scene depicted. The subject of the drawings on folio 6 verso opposite (D22789) has tentatively been identified as view of Amberley Castle on this basis.

Hayley Flynn
August 2025

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.747.
2
See Ian Warrell in David Beevers (ed.), John Roles, Warrell and others, Brighton Revealed: Through Artists’ Eyes c.1760–c.1960, exhibition catalogue, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery 1995, p.69 under no.30, where Warrell refers to this sketchbook as containing ‘views of Petworth, Amberley, and Brighton’.

How to cite

Hayley Flynn, ‘A View of a Wooded Landscape, Possibly at Amberley c.1830’, catalogue entry, August 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/a-view-of-a-wooded-landscape-possibly-at-amberley-r1212721, accessed 31 July 2026.