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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Severn Valley, Chester and Peak District ... > Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West ?1831

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 41 Recto:
Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West ?1831
D22226
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 41
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by Turner ‘P [...]’ towards top left, upside down
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘41’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 41’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The most prominent view, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation apparently shows a river flowing among trees with scattered houses beyond. The scene is perhaps on the River Severn near Worcester (see under folio 2 verso; D22154) but might equally be elsewhere on Turner’s travels through the Midlands with this sketchbook; the trees on the right are continued a little way onto folio 40 verso opposite (D22225).
A second sketch, not mentioned in Finberg’s 1909 Turner Bequest Inventory, is the other way up. Labelled ‘P’, it appears to show Peveril Castle above Castleton, looking west; there seems to be an illegible word to the right of the initial. Another prospect from this direction is on the opposite page. For others of the castle, Castleton and Peak Cavern, see under folio 1 verso (D22152).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West ?1831 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-trees-and-houses-beside-the-river-severn-peveril-castle-from-r1148872, accessed 10 May 2024.