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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Midlands 1794-1802 > Watercolours Including Midland Subjects > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Scene on a River (?the Dee) 1794-5

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Scene on a River (?the Dee)’ 1794-5
Scene on a River (?the Dee) 1794–5
D02375
Turner Bequest LI H
Watercolour with scraping-out on white wove paper, 217 x 334 mm
Stamped in black ‘LI H’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg listed this sheet with miscellaneous drawings of about 1799–1801, but the palette and technique are similar to that of watercolours of Valle Crucis Abbey and Llangollen (Tate D00703, D00861; Turner Bequest XXVIII R, XXXII E), and it shares with the view of Valle Crucis an intensely atmospheric use of light and shade. The scene may be, like those, a landscape on the River Dee near Llangollen, but a precise location has not been identified and the drawing may record Turner’s experience at some other point in his Midland tour.
The verso (D41459) includes a figure sketch and some slight colour blots.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

Revised by Matthew Imms
November 2020

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Scene on a River (?the Dee) 1794–5’, catalogue entry, April 2012, revised by Matthew Imms, November 2020, 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/scene-on-a-river-the-dee-r1141104, accessed 29 July 2026.