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; A List of Proposed Staffage for Watercolours 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner; A List of Proposed Staffage for Watercolours’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
Inscription by Turner; A List of Proposed Staffage for Watercolours 1818
D11995
Turner Bequest CLIII 1
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 185 mm
Inscribed in pencil, perhaps not by Turner (see main catalogue entry)
Stamped in black ‘CLIII 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The inscription reads:
1              2 Ladies – 1 Gentleman – taking the air
2              – About 3 – Ducks – 2 Mallard –
                                          Nothing else stirring
3              2 Stags – 3 Hinds –
4              a few Deer cantering off in the
                Distance – 2 Men on shooting ponies
                entering from gate with the Park
               Keeper on foot
5              – Deer below
6              Deer below – Rabbit Shooter –
It is not certain that the handwriting is Turner’s and the present writer has suggested that it may be that of Walter Fawkes, since it proposes staffage for finished watercolours based on some of the sketches on the pages following. The sketches concerned have corresponding numbers inscribed by the same hand, but the staffage in the respective watercolours, all made for Walter Fawkes, accords exactly only in a few instances.

David Hill
June 2009

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Inscription by Turner; A List of Proposed Staffage for Watercolours 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-a-list-of-proposed-staffage-for-r1146628, accessed 26 April 2024.