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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Hesperides (1) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Trees: ?for 'The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides' 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trees: ?for 'The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides'’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
Trees: ?for ‘The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides’ 1805
D05816
Turner Bequest XCIII 30
Pencil and pen and ink and brown wash on white wove paper, prepared with a grey wash, 171 x 262 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘30’ top right, running vertically
Stamped in black ‘XCIII 30’ top right, running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides exhibited at the British Institution in 1806 (Tate N00477),1 see especially folio 1 verso of the sketchbook (D05767), and 28 verso (D05813) for a further series of probable variant sketches of which this is one. Although very rough, it appears to set out a version of the left of the composition. The trees are reminiscent of those drawn by Turner during his Alpine tour in 1802. The same group of trees, sketched with similarly bold and decisive hatching, appears on the left of 28 verso.

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.44–6 no.57 (pl.67).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Trees: ?for ‘The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides’ 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2007, 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-trees-for-the-goddess-of-discord-choosing-the-apple-of-r1130038, accessed 19 April 2024.