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

This is a toned, laid paper made with a single-faced mould. There is a partial watermark of a Vryheit Lion and also a partial GR countermark.

The sheet is a hot pressed writing paper. The tone has derived from the quality of rags used to make the sheet. The Lion watermark is Dutch in origin but its use here does not necessarily suggest a Dutch origin for this paper. The GR countermark was also used by Dutch makers a little earlier in the eighteenth century for papers made for export to England. However, some English mills were also beginning to use these marks on their own papers.1 Therefore the maker has not yet been confirmed.

A less accomplished drawing of the church than that in the Oxford sketchbook (Tate D00024; Turner Bequest II 12), and possibly executed at an earlier date.

There is a calligraphic flourish at the top left.

Technical notes:

This is one of four faces of a folded sheet of studies (see also Tate D40210, D40211 and D40212; Turner Bequest III Eb, c and d), each of which has a separate Tate accession number, following Finberg’s sequence ‘(a)’ to ‘(d)’ under his overall heading ‘Sunningwell Church’. Opened out, the sheet measures 157 x 398 mm; in its folded form it may be likened to a pamphlet, the present study being its first ‘page’.