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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Folkestone and the Medway c.1821-2 > Medway Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Banks of the River Medway c.1821

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Banks of the River Medway’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Verso:
The Banks of the River Medway c.1821
D17418
Turner Bequest CXCIX 33a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 190 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Identified as ‘Banks of Medway’ by Finberg, the prospect on this page remains largely vague.1 The river runs as a gently serpentine diagonal through the bottom right corner of the sheet. It is first visible just to the left of centre and broadens as it descends towards the gutter. The distant bank is lightly hatched, and foregrounded topography is only slightly more elaborated. A tree or bush is recorded at far left and angular shapes close to the water at bottom right presumably indicate architectural structures.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.608.
Technical notes:
Residue from the drawings on folio 34 recto (D17419) has left marks across top half of this page.

Maud Whatley
January 2016

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘The Banks of the River Medway c.1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-banks-of-the-river-medway-r1184695, accessed 20 September 2024.