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 > Woodcock Shooting Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for Classical Picture, Possibly Related to 'Crossing the Brook' c.1812-13

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for Classical Picture, Possibly Related to 'Crossing the Brook'’ c.1812-13
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Recto:
Study for Classical Picture, Possibly Related to ‘Crossing the Brook’ c.1812–13
D09118
Turner Bequest CXXIX 43
Ink on white wove paper, 178 x 110 mm
Trace of inscription by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘43 [?]’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CXXIX 43’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The relationship between this composition and Crossing the Brook (Tate N00497)1 exhibited in 1815 does not seem to have been previously noticed. With the general composition, figure crossing foreground water, and a road running off at the right, it perhaps more closely resembles the painting than folio 52 recto (D09129), below, which has previously been equated with the painting.

David Hill
October 2008

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.93–4 no.130, pl.123.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Study for Classical Picture, Possibly Related to ‘Crossing the Brook’ c.1812–13 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2008, 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-study-for-classical-picture-possibly-related-to-crossing-the-r1146840, accessed 26 April 2024.