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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Designs for Sandycombe Lodge c.1812-13

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 51 Verso:
Designs for Sandycombe Lodge c.1812–13
D09128
Turner Bequest CXXIX 51a
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 178 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These designs appear inverted in relation to the present foliation of the sketchbook.
Turner’s built his self-designed villa at Twickenham, Sandycombe Lodge c.1812–13.1 Patrick Youngblood identifies these particular designs as transitional between two broad ideas that Turner considered for the plan, one thrusting out into the site, the other stretching along its contour.2 The most obvious drawing, bottom right, is perhaps the most complex idea that Turner evolved with its two wings each with large sideways-chamfered bays. The drawing to the left, as Youngblood observes, is close to the final design if one imagines it with the veranda removed. The fact, however, that Turner was still considering radical alternatives on this page suggests that he was still some way from finalising his plans to the extent that he could commence building. This is the last of the sketches in this orientation, that is entered against the numbered sequence. From the position of the bookseller’s label (see inside back cover and introductory notes) this sketch appears to belong to the first sequence of sketches made in the book and from its relation to the building of Sandycombe we might infer a date no later than the second or third quarter of 1812.
There are some splashes of ink offset from the drawing on folio 52 recto (D09129), opposite.

David Hill
October 2008

1
Youngblood 1982, p.23. The house was complete by July 1813 when Turner was first rated on the property. It should have taken no more than six months to build.
2
Ibid., pp.27–8.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Designs for Sandycombe Lodge c.1812–13 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-designs-for-sandycombe-lodge-r1146851, accessed 19 March 2024.