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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Erotica and Improvisations c.1834-6 > Colour Studies (1) Sketchbook [Finberg ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?A Landscape, with Rushes or Trees c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Landscape, with Rushes or Trees’ c.1834-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
?A Landscape, with Rushes or Trees c.1834–6
D28802
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 11
Watercolour on white wove paper, 77 x 101 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 11’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For a discussion of the improvisatory and often erotic nature of the watercolour studies making up most of this sketchbook, see the Introduction. Many appear to show dark interiors and beds with figures, but among them are a few with a greater sense of openness and even landscape forms, as here, where the dark shapes which might otherwise have developed into bed curtains suggest rough vegetation, perhaps rushes or trees, beneath a blue sky; compare folios 13 recto (possibly evoking a river scene with rushes), and folios 50 verso, 51 verso and 52 verso (D28804, D28861, D28863, D28865). There are also some landscape studies in pencil towards the end of the book (see the Introduction).
Verso:
Blank, save for offsetting of watercolour from folio 12 recto opposite (D28803).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Landscape, with Rushes or Trees c.1834–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-landscape-with-rushes-or-trees-r1149032, accessed 24 April 2024.