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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Wooded Landscape, Probably near the Highgate Archway, with a Distant Church Spire 1813

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 224 Verso:
A Wooded Landscape, Probably near the Highgate Archway, with a Distant Church Spire 1813
D09374
Turner Bequest CXXXI 135a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?S...]’ towards top right, above spire on horizon
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this hilly, wooded landscape provides little to indicate its location; Turner’s single-word inscription above what seems to be a spire on the horizon remains undeciphered. However, the drawings between folios 218 verso and 227 verso (D09362–D09380; Turner Bequest CXXXI 129a–138a) are all identified or likely views in the vicinity of the new Highgate Archway in the countryside north of London; they were probably made working in from the back of the book as now foliated. The subject is discussed under folio 128 verso (D09360; Turner Bequest CXXXI 128a), apparently incorrectly isolated from the rest of the sequence by a block of blank leaves.
Technical notes:
There is some staining at the top, which shows through to the recto (D09373) and matches that on folio 225 recto opposite (D09375; CXXXI 136), where there is a slight continuation of a treetop ‘above’ the present drawing.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Wooded Landscape, Probably near the Highgate Archway, with a Distant Church Spire 1813 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-landscape-probably-near-the-highgate-archway-with-a-r1148104, accessed 28 March 2024.