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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Hot Wells, Clifton 1791

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
The Hot Wells, Clifton 1791
D00074
Turner Bequest VI 3
Pencil and wash on white laid paper, 185 x 263 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘The Back View of the Hot Wells from Gloustershire [sic] | side [inserted above]’ top right, ‘BRISTOL’ on transom of boat, centre foreground, and with numerals and initials of colours ‘W’, ‘B’, ‘U’ within drawing
Stamped in black ‘VI 3’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Compare the slightly later watercolour derived from this drawing (Tate D00389; Turner Bequest XXIII O), which was probably used as the basis for a Royal Academy exhibit in 1793: The Rising Squall – Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol.1 For stylistic reasons noted there, the work listed in Wilton’s 1979 catalogue of Turner’s watercolours under this title (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery)2 cannot be the exhibited watercolour.
1
See Andrew Wilton, Turner in his Time, London 1987, p.[8], pl.5.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.302 no.18, pl.8.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in black ink with Turner Bequest monogram

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Hot Wells, Clifton 1791 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-the-hot-wells-clifton-r1140122, accessed 24 April 2024.