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 and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Title of Sketchbook c.1816

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Title of Sketchbook’ c.1816 (Back cover of sketchbook)
Back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Back Cover:
Inscription by Turner: Title of Sketchbook c.1816
D40884
Ink on paper over board, 188 x 270 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Devonshire Rivers 3 | Yorkshire Wharfedale’ towards top centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This inscription, noting both the main locales recorded in the sketchbook, looks to have been written at a single sitting given the consistency of the handwriting despite a generous separation of the two lines. Turner appears to have first written ‘Warfedale’, then corrected himself by converting the right-hand upstroke of the ‘W’ to ‘h’ and extending the first letter to the left. The words were adapted slightly by Finberg when he came to name the sketchbook in his 1909 Turner Bequest Inventory. There a briefer version on the label on the spine (D40878).

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: Title of Sketchbook c.1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, 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-title-of-sketchbook-r1147448, accessed 26 April 2024.