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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Vignette watercolours c.1826-1843 > Watercolours Related to Samuel Rogers's ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for 'The Vision', Rogers's 'Poems' c.1830-2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for 'The Vision', Rogers's 'Poems'’ c.1830-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Study for ‘The Vision’, Rogers’s ‘Poems’ circa 1830–2
D27720
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 203
Pencil and watercolour, approximately 87 x 110 mm on white wove paper, 244 x 295 mm
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘In two parts | 1st part of CCLXXX 203 204 | (In 2 [?parts])’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 203’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is an experimental colour study for the finished watercolour The Vision, one of seven illustrations which Turner designed for ‘The Voyage of Columbus’, the final work in Rogers’s Poems (see Tate D27714; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 197). Although the palette and subject matter of the study are closely related to those of the finished vignette, the two designs differ considerably. The ghost warriors in the sketch are smaller and the procession stretches diagonally, rather than horizontally, across the composition. Furthermore, the high crescent moon on the left was substituted in the final scene for a smaller and more intense globe of light and the velvety blue of the sky was muted in favour of a fierier sunset.
Turner produced one additional colour study for The Vision (see Tate D27721; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 204), as well as a pencil drawing of the final composition (see Tate D40175).
Verso:
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘32 | a’ centre and ?charcoal marks scattered across sheet
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 203’ lower centre

Meredith Gamer
August 2006

How to cite

Meredith Gamer, ‘Study for ‘The Vision’, Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2006, 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-study-for-the-vision-rogerss-poems-r1133377, accessed 28 December 2025.