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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Wooded Hillside and Wide Valley, in Devon or Yorkshire 1814-16

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Wooded Hillside and Wide Valley, in Devon or Yorkshire’ 1814-16
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Verso:
A Wooded Hillside and Wide Valley, in Devon or Yorkshire 1814–16
D09879
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 76a
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘S[...]’ bottom left, and ‘[?Rushs]’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘923’ bottom left
Inscribed in pencil ‘118’ bottom left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although this hilly, wooded scene is recorded in some detail, its lack of distinctive landmarks makes it difficult to differentiate as a view of Devon in 1814 or in Yorkshire in 1816, the two occasions when this sketchbook was employed (see the Introduction).
Technical notes:
In terms of its present position, this drawing is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. The recto (D09878; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 76) is one of eight drawings from this sketchbook lent to Oxford University in the nineteenth century (see the sketchbook’s Introduction). Each has a large pencil number inscribed on the back which presumably relates to this loan, although they do not tally with the Oxford catalogue numbers. In this case the number is evidently ‘118’ (rather than ‘811’ if read the other way up) in sequence with the others, for example ‘119’ on folio 16 verso (D09877; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 75a).

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Wooded Hillside and Wide Valley, in Devon or Yorkshire 1814–16 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, 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-a-wooded-hillside-and-wide-valley-in-devon-or-yorkshire-r1147372, accessed 16 April 2024.