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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscriptions; and Sketches c.1830-1

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back Cover:
Inscriptions; and Sketches circa 1830–1
D41234
Pen and brown ink and pencil on white wove paper, 96 x 59 mm
Inscribed in black ink by Turner ‘39 Go 1st Legacy Day | duty remitted to bequest | in the Royal Academy’ bottom
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘637 | 556 | 1800 30/ mn | 48 480 R | 180 [?]Row 6 | Traprain Law | 290’ across the page
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Written in brown ink at the outer edge of the page with the sketchbook turned to the right is a note by Turner relating to the discussion at the Royal Academy in 1830 about purchasing the Old Master drawings from the collection of the late president, Sir Thomas Lawrence. The figures inscribed in pencil above this remain obscure.
At the centre of the page is a sketch of Hailes Castle as seen from the north with ‘Traprain Law’ behind it. Turner made a number of sketches of the castle, which sits on the banks of the River Tyne near the village of East Linton, on his way to Haddington from North Berwick on 12 or 13 August 1831. There is a another tiny sketch of Hailes Castle on folio 23 verso of this sketchbook (D25683), and a number of large and more carefully executed sketches in the Abbotsford sketchbook (Tate D25971; Turner Bequest CCLXVII 24a).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Inscriptions; and Sketches c.1830–1 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, 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-inscriptions-and-sketches-r1134126, accessed 29 March 2024.