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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > Mortlake and Pulborough Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Summer-house and Garden at 'The Limes', Mortlake, Looking West up the River Thames; Studies of the Garden c.1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Summer-house and Garden at 'The Limes', Mortlake, Looking West up the River Thames; Studies of the Garden’ c.1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Recto:
The Summer-house and Garden at ‘The Limes’, Mortlake, Looking West up the River Thames; Studies of the Garden c.1825
D18734
Turner Bequest CCXIII 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 187 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ bottom right (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCXIII – 16’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The left-hand half of the page is a continuation from the full-page view on folio 15 verso opposite (D18733), under which the subject, set in the garden of ‘The Limes’ at Mortlake, is discussed. The present part of the scene was largely incorporated in the composition of the painting Mortlake Terrace, the Seat of William Moffatt, Esq. Summer’s Evening, shown at the Royal Academy in 1827 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC),1 although only the left-hand edge and branches of the tree were included as a repoussoir device. The inconspicuous sailing boat here was replaced by a large Thames sailing barge and several other craft, making the river appear somewhat overcrowded. For the semi-transparent tree, see under D18733. At the right, with the page turned vertically, are two smaller studies. At the outer edge is a reprise of the overall two-page composition, with a study of other trees below, possibly along the south side of the lawn.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.147–8 no.239, pl.237 (colour).
Technical notes:
The leaf has been removed from the sketchbook and reattached. The loose pencil marks just visible towards the top and bottom of the gutter on the verso relate to this process; such marks often occur on the backs of double-page spreads extracted for display in the nineteenth century, but there appears to be no record of such an event in this case, which would have involved the drawing spanning D18733 and the present page. The ink number on the verso is of the type also usually indicating early display.
Verso:
Blank, save for ‘981’ inscribed in red ink bottom left.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Summer-house and Garden at ‘The Limes’, Mortlake, Looking West up the River Thames; Studies of the Garden c.1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-summer-house-and-garden-at-the-limes-mortlake-looking-r1172856, accessed 19 April 2024.