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 Leeds from Beeston Hill 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 47 Recto:
Leeds from Beeston Hill 1816
D09833
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 38a
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1811’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg recognised this as a ‘Distant view’ of Leeds.1 The whole horizon is tilted down towards the right, and the sketch appears to have been executed very rapidly compared with the intricacies of the view shown across folios 48 verso–49 recto (D09883–D09884; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 79–80); for a detailed discussion of the subject, see under D09883.
Although rather slight and disjointed, what details there are in the distance of the present sketch appear to correspond quite closely with the alignment of landmarks from the south in the more detailed study. The horse and cart in the foreground here were not used Turner’s 1816 watercolour of Leeds (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).2
Compare also the slight sketches on folios 81 verso and 82 recto (D09831, D09841; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 37a, 45a).
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.382; see also Butlin, Wilton and Gage 1974, p.82, Daniels 1986, p.10, and Chumbley and Warrell 1989, p.46, and Hill p.103.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.362 no.544, reproduced.
Technical notes:
No gilt is apparent on the outer edge of the page, suggesting it has not been rebound in its original orientation, as also suggested by Finberg’s suffix ‘a’ to his page number, usually indicating the verso, and by the stamped inventory number appearing upside down (on the verso as now bound) in comparison with the general run of numbering.

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Leeds from Beeston Hill 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-leeds-from-beeston-hill-r1147406, accessed 02 October 2025.