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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Marine subjects c.1803-14 > Spithead Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Historical Landscape 1807

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Historical Landscape’ 1807
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Recto:
Historical Landscape 1807
D06568
Turner Bequest C 44
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 118 x 187 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bride White’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘44’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘C 44’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing is rather more developed than many in this book, with extensive hatching and shading. It represents a classical landscape in the manner of Claude Lorrain or Gaspard Dughet, perhaps with Tobias or Hagar and the Angel. Folio 63 verso of the sketchbook (D06593; Turner Bequest C 58a) has notes on pictures by Old Masters. The colour note here might suggest that Turner was recording some other work, but sketches drawn from life in this book also have such notes, and folio 49 (D06569; Turner Bequest C 45) has a sketch of a graceful overhanging tree that appears to be a variant of one of those to right of centre here. Possibly it was an idea for the Liber Studiorum, for which other sketches in this book were used; see Introduction.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
May 2006

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Historical Landscape 1807 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2006, 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-historical-landscape-r1139100, accessed 26 April 2024.