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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Finance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: ?A Draft of Poetry c.1807-14

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: ?A Draft of Poetry’ c.1807-14
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: ?A Draft of Poetry c.1807–14
D08287
Turner Bequest CXXII 3a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 69 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The ten lines here, written with the page turned vertically, are so rubbed as to be effectively illegible; virtually as much of the graphite is offset on folio 4 recto opposite (D08288) as remains here. The regularity and spacing suggest the lines may be a draft of poetry.1 There is a similar, slightly more legible inscription on folio 4 verso (D08289).

Matthew Imms
September 2013

1
For the fullest account of such material see Andrew Wilton and Rosalind Mallord Turner, Painting and Poetry: Turner’s ‘Verse Book’ and his Work of 1804–1812, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1990.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: ?A Draft of Poetry c.1807–14 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, 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-inscription-by-turner-a-draft-of-poetry-r1147763, accessed 25 April 2024.