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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Erotica and Improvisations c.1834-6 > Fishing at the Weir Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: ?Topographical Notes c.1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: ?Topographical Notes’ c.1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: ?Topographical Notes c.1836
D27773
Turner Bequest CCLXXXI 26
Pencil on white wove paper, 101 x 79 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘26’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXXI – 26’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, Turner has made the following pencil notes:
L[...] – R[...]
to Z[...] [pictogram] [?Hill slip]
Such as it is, this reading is based on Finberg’s, as these few words are very difficult to decipher, and what appears to be a tiny drawing or pictogram in the second line may not be the ‘church tower’ he suggests.1 The words may however be Continental place names, as on the verso and both sides of folio 27 (D27774–D27776), which seem to relate to Turner’s tour to the Alps in 1836, as discussed under D27774.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.907.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: ?Topographical Notes c.1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-topographical-notes-r1149134, accessed 26 April 2024.