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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Liber Notes (1) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A River Scene with Barges, Probably on the Thames Upstream from London c.1815-16

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A River Scene with Barges, Probably on the Thames Upstream from London’ c.1815-16
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
A River Scene with Barges, Probably on the Thames Upstream from London c.1815–16
D10780
Turner Bequest CXLIII 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 102 x 160 mm
Partial watermark ‘J Gr | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ bottom left, descending vertically (now smudged and faint)
Stamped in black ‘CXLIII – 5’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subjects from folio 3 recto (D10778) to folio 6 recto (D10781) await positive identification, but the views of Southwark Bridge preceding them (see under folio 1 recto; D10775) and the subsequent sketch of Greenwich on folio 7 recto (D10783) suggest that they are all likely to be River Thames scenes around London. The meandering watercourse with trees and barges shown here is reminiscent of many of the studies made while Turner lived west of London beside the Thames at Isleworth, a decade before the likely date of the studies here.1
For Gerald Wilkinson’s comments on the style and dating of this and other pages in the sketchbook, see under folio 4 recto (D10779).
1
See David Hill, Turner on the Thames: River Journeys in the Year 1805, New Haven and London 1993.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
September 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A River Scene with Barges, Probably on the Thames Upstream from London c.1815–16 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, 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-river-scene-with-barges-probably-on-the-thames-upstream-r1147666, accessed 23 April 2024.