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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Egyptian Details Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Fallen Tree ?1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Fallen Tree’ ?1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Recto:
A Fallen Tree ?1799
D03923
Turner Bequest LXVI 87
Pencil and white chalk on blue laid paper, 83 x 166 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘87’ bottom left, descending vertically
Inscribed in pencil ‘87’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXVI – 87’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this is one of four studies of fallen trees or broken branches in this book; the others are on folios 88 recto, 89 recto and 90 recto (D03924–D03926). Turner made colour studies of fallen trees in the Swans sketchbook (Tate D01691–D01694; Turner Bequest XLII 16–17, 18–19), which have been associated with his 1799 visits to Fonthill in Wiltshire, when he was gathering material for the five watercolour views of Fonthill Abbey that he painted on commission for William Beckford and exhibited in 1800 (private collection; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Montréal Museum of Fine Arts; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester).1
Since there is some evidence that he took this book to Fonthill (see folios 126 verso and 127 recto; D03963, D03964; Turner Bequest LXVI 125a, 126), it may be that these studies were made there as well. It is possible they were used for Jason (Tate N00471),2 a painting exhibited in 1802 in which the foreground of a wild landscape is scattered with broken branches; other examples of broken branches occur in The Fifth Plague of Egypt, exhibited in 1800 (Indianapolis Museum of Art),3 The Tenth Plague of Egypt of 1802 (Tate N00470)4 and, rather later, Apollo and Python of 1811 (Tate N00488).5 See also the Jason sketchbook (Tate D03716; Turner Bequest LXI 60a).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.338 nos.335–339, reproduced, and pl.53.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.18 no.19, pl.15.
3
Ibid., pp.10–12 no.13, pl.10 (colour).
4
Ibid., pp.16–17 no.17, pl.13 (colour).
5
Ibid., p.82 no.115, pl.119.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Fallen Tree ?1799 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-fallen-tree-r1180162, accessed 11 June 2026.