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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > Thames Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A River Scene, with Trees c.1825

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A River Scene, with Trees’ c.1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
A River Scene, with Trees c.1825
D18611
Turner Bequest CCXII 10
Watercolour on white wove paper, 114 x 188 mm
Part watermark ‘lee | 19’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘10’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXII – 10’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of a sequence of twenty-five recto pages of watercolour landscape, sea and sky compositions between folio 9 recto (D18609) and folio 34 recto (D18638), many of which evoke quiet Thames Valley settings with water in the foreground; for a checklist and general comments, see the sketchbook’s Introduction. Eric Shanes has observed, in relation to the whole sequence and the present page in particular, how ‘Turner took advantage of the slight resistance of the paper to certain pigments. Such a speckling of the colours can be seen to great advantage [here], for it lends enormous sparkle to the scene depicted.’1

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Shanes 1997, p.65.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A River Scene, with Trees c.1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-river-scene-with-trees-r1172728, accessed 14 May 2024.