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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Corfe to Dartmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dorchester from the Frome Valley 1811

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dorchester from the Frome Valley’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
Dorchester from the Frome Valley 1811
D08834
Turner Bequest CXXIV 23
Pencil on white wove paper, 170 x 209 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Dorchester’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CXXIV – 23’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The pinnacled tower of St George’s Church, Fordington, appears on left and on the hill towards the right is the tower of St Peter’s Church in the centre of Dorchester, west of Turner’s viewpoint. Grey’s Bridge is on the left in the middle distance, carrying the London Road over the main channel of the River Frome.1 The view remains largely recognisable from the fields beside the remains of an old weir just north of the bridge over a subsidiary channel of the Frome, about a quarter of a mile east of Grey’s Bridge.
Although Dorchester would have made a picturesque subject in other circumstances, its position well inland on Turner’s route between the coastal sites of Lulworth Cove (folios 20 recto and verso, 21 recto and verso and 22 recto; D08829–D08833) and Weymouth (folio 24 recto; D08835)2 made it irrelevant to his immediate purpose of gathering material for his Southern Coast project (see the 1811 tour introduction), and he developed the view no further.
1
See Hanley 1992, p.26; compare modern photograph and 1747 engraving, ibid., ‘Cat.34’ and ‘Cat.35’.
2
Ibid., pp.6, 27.
Technical notes:
There is prominent creasing at the bottom left.
Verso:
Blank, save for some rubbing or offsetting.

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dorchester from the Frome Valley 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dorchester-from-the-frome-valley-r1137315, accessed 24 April 2024.