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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > North of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boston: The Town seen from the River 1797

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boston: The Town seen from the River’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Recto:
Boston: The Town seen from the River 1797
D00993
Turner Bequest XXXIV 82
Pencil on white wove paper, 270 x 210 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXXIV 82’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is the second of two drawings that Turner made in Boston; the other, a study of the Church of St Botolph, is on folio 86 recto (D00992; Turner Bequest XXXIV 81a). In this study the church with its famous tower (‘Boston Stump’) is only faintly sketched in, and Turner concentrates on the wharfside buildings and shipping in the harbour. The two drawings were used for reference when Turner composed his watercolour of Boston for the Picturesque Beauties of England and Wales in the mid-1830s (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario).1
1
Wilton 1979, p.400 no.859, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Boston: The Town seen from the River 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-boston-the-town-seen-from-the-river-r1150151, accessed 25 April 2024.