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 a Classical Picture, Possibly Related to 'Crossing the Brook' c.1812-13

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for a Classical Picture, Possibly Related to 'Crossing the Brook'’ c.1812-13
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Recto:
Study for a Classical Picture, Possibly Related to ‘Crossing the Brook’ c.1812–13
D09129
Turner Bequest CXXIX 52
Ink and wash on white wove paper, 178 x 110 mm
Watermarked ‘[WHAT]MAN’
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘52’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CXXIX 52’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is the last of a series of twenty-five studies, beginning on folio 20 verso of the sketchbook (D09082), of variations on the theme of an upright classical composition. Finberg suggested a possible relationship of the present sketch to the painting of Crossing the Brook (Tate N00497)1 exhibited in 1815. The general composition, albeit here with much more architectural elaboration, is very close, and at least three other sketches in the series, folios 36, 43 and 46 (Tate D09110, D09118, D09122) are also close to the painting. The painting is said to have been informed by Turner’s visit to Devon and Cornwall in 1813,2 and it seems likely that the designs rehearsed in the present sketchbook provided the mould into which his naturalistic observations were poured.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.93–4 no.130, pl.123.
2
Butlin and Joll, ibid., cite the testimony of Charles Lock Eastlake that the bridge in the middle distance of the painting is Calstock Bridge on the River Tamar. But there was no bridge at Calstock until the railway viaduct was built in 1908. The first bridge on the Tamar is at Gunnislake, rather further upstream. No sketches have yet been identified to provide a convincing topographical basis for the painting.
Verso:
Blank

David Hill
October 2008

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Study for a 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-a-classical-picture-possibly-related-to-crossing-r1146852, accessed 23 April 2024.