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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscriptions by Turner: Patrons and Picture Dimensions 1828

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Patrons and Picture Dimensions’ 1828
Folio 11 Recto:
Inscriptions by Turner: Patrons and Picture Dimensions 1828
D21871
Turner Bequest CCXXXVII 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 88 x 71 mm
Inscribed in black ink by Turner (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed in red ink ‘11’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVII – 11’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner used the upper section of this page for a series of ink inscriptions, which include the names of two patrons and dimensions for seven paintings, accompanied by pictographs. In his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, Finberg provided the following transcription:1
Sir Woulsey. 28 Inches by 21 High.
Ld E. 8 feet 2 ½ by 4 feet 7 ½.
[a pictograph] 2 feet 6. 1 feet 11 ¼
1 feet 1 ¼. 1 – 11 ¾
[a pictograph] 2 feet 8 ¼ by 2 – 2 ½
[a circle] 2 feet 5 ½ by 1 f. 9 ¾
[a square] 1 feet 7 ¼ 1 – 4
Whereas Finberg plausibly transcribed the first name as ‘Sir Woulsey’, Cecilia Powell’s more recent commentary interprets this name as Sir Willoughby, the preferred name of General Sir James Willoughby Gordon.2 Evidently pleased with his previous commissions from Turner, Sir Willoughby requested a further painting to be executed during his tour of Italy in 1828–9. Powell identified the oil painting A View overlooking a Lake, since retitled The Banks of the Loire (Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts),3 as being among the eight or so pictures executed by the artist during his stay in Rome. As Ian Warrell has observed, the dimensions of the executed painting closely resemble the ‘28 Inches by 21 High’ written here by Turner.4
The ‘Ld E.’ of the second line refers to Turner’s friend and longstanding patron George O’Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, who regularly hosted Turner at his country seat in West Sussex, Petworth House (see the Petworth section of the present catalogue, covering 1827–35). The dimensions ‘8 feet 2 ½ by 4 feet 7 ½’ presumably refer to the painting Palestrina (Tate N06283),5 executed in Rome in 1828, which Egremont did not purchase.

Hannah Kaspar
December 2024

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.726.
2
Powell 1983, p.56; Powell 1984, p.298.
3
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.182 under no.328a.
4
Warrell 1997, p.181.
5
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.173–4 no.295, pl.297 (colour).

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Patrons and Picture Dimensions 1828’, catalogue entry, December 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/inscriptions-by-turner-patrons-and-picture-dimensions-r1210429, accessed 21 July 2026.