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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Liber Notes (2) Sketchbook [Finberg CLIV ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Plants including Nettles and Dandelions c.1808-18

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Plants including Nettles and Dandelions’ c.1808-18
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Recto:
Studies of Plants including Nettles and Dandelions c.1808–18
D12136
Turner Bequest CLIV a 9
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 89 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Stamford Hill’ top left
Stamped in black ‘CLIV (a) – 9’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These various separate studies take up most of the page (turned vertically), forming a spontaneous composition. They include nettles (Urtica) towards the top left, dandelions (Taraxacum) at the bottom right, and perhaps ivy (Hedera) towards the bottom left. The page is annotated ‘Stamford Hill’, the area about three miles north-west of central London where the specimens were presumably observed. There are no identified sketches of the surrounding landscape in the present sketchbook or elsewhere from which to infer a date or a particular reason for Turner’s being there. There are other, similarly detailed botanical studies on folios 5 recto, 7 recto and 8 recto (D12131, D12133, D12135), perhaps made on the same occasion.
Technical notes:
There seems to be no sign of John Ruskin’s usual red ink foliation; there are such numbers on most of the later pages (see the Introduction to the sketchbook).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
September 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Studies of Plants including Nettles and Dandelions c.1808–18 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, 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-studies-of-plants-including-nettles-and-dandelions-r1147552, accessed 25 April 2024.