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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Perspective lectures c.1809-28 > Perspective Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts for 1807-9 c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts for 1807-9’ c.1809 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back Cover:
Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts for 1807–9 circa 1809
D07354
Pen and ink and pencil on white wove paper, 115 x 88 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil and ink (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The whole page is taken up with the following accounts, largely in pencil:
       – 405 (12 A [?9]            12 Ap  1809 
Groom  – 3832                      19 Ma     9 
Left   – 2580                      14 Aug  [?7]v
         8052                      9 Ma      9 
Gale  –   666                      2 June    9 
M       10055                      2 June    9 
           54
           53                                9 
        2421     5                13 Mar     9 
        2127     2                1 Feb      9 
Lt      4274     1                23 Mar     9 
M      11909     1                26 Jun     9 
          3      4      6         5||8035 – 23 June      9 
          2      0      0         5||9212    8 Sep       8 
          15            4         5|| 869   3 June      9 
          20     4     10         5||6675    29 Ap       9 
                                 10||1124    13 June     9 
15 Kings 
9 [?Holt]  
10 [?Trower]  
10 Remaining of Fawkes 
30 Swinburne            2 left 
74 
‘Left’, ‘M’, ‘Lt’ and ‘M’ down the left-hand margin are in ink, as are the figures and names at the bottom left, with ‘2 left’ in pencil.
‘Fawkes’ is Turner’s Yorkshire patron and friend Walter Fawkes,1 but the significance of the other names is less clear. ‘Swinburne’ is likely to be Fawkes’s friend Sir John Swinburne, who is traditionally understood to have bought watercolours of Swiss subjects from Turner,2 one of which, The Lake of Brienz (British Museum, London)3 is dated 1809. However, Anne Lyles has suggested that Sir John’s brother Edward may have actually been the purchaser.4
1
See James Hamilton, ‘Fawkes, Walter Ramsden’ in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (eds.), The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, pp.103–5.
2
See Terry Riggs, ‘Swinburne, Sir John’ in Joll, Butlin and Herrmann 2001, p.323.
3
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.343 no.386, reproduced.
4
Anne Lyles, Turner and Natural History: The Farnley Project, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1988, pp.28, 46 note 62; see also Terry Riggs, ‘Swinburne, Edward, senior’ in Joll, Butlin and Herrmann 2001, p.323.
Technical notes:
The endpaper is considerably darkened around the outer edges, where it is pasted over the turn-ins of the leather cover.

Matthew Imms
June 2008

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts for 1807–9 c.1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2008, 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-by-turner-accounts-for-1807-9-r1136708, accessed 20 April 2024.