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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Heidelberg up to Salzburg Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of Buildings and a Figure 1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of Buildings and a Figure’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 98 Verso:
Sketches of Buildings and a Figure 1833
D30001
Turner Bequest CCXCVIII 98 a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 165 x 110 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner illegibly top to centre; ‘[...]’ | ‘[...]’ right towards bottom (inverted)
Signed in pencil by Charles Locke Eastlake ‘C.L.E.’ and John Prescott Knight ‘JPK’ left centre
Inscribed in black ink by Henry Scott Trimmer ‘No 235. | Containing 95 Leaves | Pencil Sketches most on both | Sides – H.S. Trimmer’ centre
Signed in black ink by Charles Turner ‘C Turner’ centre, below H.S. Trimmer’s endorsement
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCXCVIII’ centre right
Inscribed in pencil ‘42’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned in accordance with the foliation Turner has drawn the figure of a woman supporting an object on her head. Illegible inscriptions surround the figure.
With the sketchbook turned upside down relative to the foliation the artist has also produced a swift sketch of what appears to be a church with large arched windows and a separate view of distant hills. Two jottings of a figure with an object atop their head and buildings are above the view.
At centre are inscriptions by the executors of Turner’s estate. The folio is signed in pencil by Charles Locke Eastlake ‘C.L.E.’ and John Prescott Knight ‘JPK’, and inscribed in black ink by Henry Scott Trimmer: ‘No 235. | Containing 95 Leaves | Pencil Sketches most on both | Sides – H.S. Trimmer’. Below Trimmer’s endorsement is Charles Turner’s signature: ‘C Turner’.

Alice Rylance-Watson
July 2017

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Sketches of Buildings and a Figure 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-sketches-of-buildings-and-a-figure-r1203259, accessed 05 April 2026.