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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Farnley Hall and Yorkshire c.1808-24 > Farnley Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner; Calculation of Framing Costs for Walter Fawkes 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner; Calculation of Framing Costs for Walter Fawkes’ 1818 (Inside front cover of sketchbook)
Inside front cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Front Cover:
Inscription by Turner; Calculation of Framing Costs for Walter Fawkes 1818
D40716
Ink on white wove paper, 111 x 185 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘CLIII | S54’ top right
Stamped in brown ‘CLIII’ top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscription reads:
Mr Fawkes frame 11 Feet long    9 wide
  22
  18
  40
40 Feet at £1 10 per foot     60 0 0
corners additional 5 each      20 0 0
                80 0 0
40 Feet    25s per foot 50 £
Corners    4 16
     66
It is not altogether clear what picture frame is referred to here. One obvious contender is the Dort, or Dordrecht, the Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut)1 which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818 and bought by Walter Fawkes to hang at Farnley Hall. Another possibility is Entrance of the Meuse: Orange-Merchant on the Bar, Going to Pieces; Brill Church Bearing S.E. by S., Masensluys E. by S. (Tate N00501)2 exhibited at the Academy in 1819. The latter fits well with the contents of the sketchbook, since these include three sketches for that composition (D12047, D12096, D12098; Turner Bequest CLIII 41, 89a, 90a), and it is possible that when Turner was at Farnley in November 1818, Fawkes was considering adding Entrance of the Meuse to his collection as a pendant to the Dort, although in the event he did not. If either painting is that intended, however, it must be admitted that Turner’s estimate of the lengths is somewhat in excess of those strictly required, unless the frame was exceedingly heavy, although he does offer a slightly cheaper alternative in his second calculation.

David Hill
June 2009

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.102–4 no.137 (pl.140).
2
Ibid., pp.105–6 no.139 (pl.143).

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Inscription by Turner; Calculation of Framing Costs for Walter Fawkes 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-inscription-by-turner-calculation-of-framing-costs-for-r1146627, accessed 12 May 2026.