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 > Fishing at the Weir Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Tonal Preparation for a Composition c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Tonal Preparation for a Composition’ c.1834-6
Folio 2 Verso:
?Tonal Preparation for a Composition c.1834–6
D40747
Watercolour on white wove paper, 79 x 101 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As set out in the Introduction, numerous pages in the first third of this sketchbook have had rough watercolour washes applied, which have then been developed into compositions to varying degrees. The wash here is so cursory that it was not even recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Turner Bequest Inventory.1 In the spirit of the slightly more evolved studies, it might be possible to discern a dark space at the left and the hint of a figure or figures towards the centre, but this is extremely speculative.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
See A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.906.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Tonal Preparation for a Composition c.1834–6’, 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/tonal-preparation-for-a-composition-r1149094, accessed 04 November 2025.