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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Richmond Hill; Hastings to Margate ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1816-19

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Thames from Richmond Hill’ c.1816-19
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 78 Verso:
The River Thames from Richmond Hill circa 1816–19
D10549
Turner Bequest CXL 70a
Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With sketches and drawings running from the verso to folio 86 verso of the sketchbook (D10550–D10565; Turner Bequest CXL 71–78a), this drawing is associated by Eric Shanes with Turner’s watercolour Richmond Terrace, Surrey (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool),1 engraved by J.T. Willmore in 1838 for Picturesque Views in England and Wales. The last of Turner’s many representations of this famous prospect, it was perhaps prompted by King William IV’s construction of a terraced promenade in 1834.2 With other Richmond views in this sketchbook, those from the hill are probably much earlier and related to other works as well, beginning with the painting England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent’s Birthday (Tate N00502)3 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1819. Butlin and Joll’s discussion of the picture refers to folios 85–90 (D10562–D10572; Turner Bequest CXL 77–82), dating them about 1815, but makes no mention of the numerous other views, presumably because few were then identified. See notes to folio 76 verso (D10545; Turner Bequest CXL 68a) for a particular similarity to buildings depicted in the watercolour (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight)4 engraved by Edward Goodall in 1826 for The Literary Souvenir but probably originally intended for England and Wales.

David Blayney Brown
July 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.403 no.879.
2
Eric Shanes, Turner’s England 1810–1838, London 1990, p.257.
3
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed. 1984, New Haven and London 1984, pp.106–7 no.140 (pl.145).
4
Wilton 1979, p.359 no.518.

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1816–19 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2011, 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-river-thames-from-richmond-hill-r1131543, accessed 07 May 2025.