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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Brighton and Copies from Wilson 1796-7 > Wilson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner An Ivy-Clad Church with Figures near a Tomb, and Shipping Beyond 1796-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An Ivy-Clad Church with Figures near a Tomb, and Shipping Beyond’ 1796-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 57 Verso:
An Ivy-Clad Church with Figures near a Tomb, and Shipping Beyond 1796–7
D01233
Turner Bequest XXXVII 116
Pencil, watercolour and gouache on blue laid wrapping paper prepared with a red-brown wash, 113 x 93 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXXVII – 116’ bottom left right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The composition continues across folio 58 recto opposite (D01234; Turner Bequest XXXVII 117). There is land beyond the water seen at the right of this view, so Turner has probably moved farther round the coast of Kent from Margate and Reculver (see folio 56 verso; D01231; Turner Bequest XXXVII 114) into the Thames estuary. The opposite shore is still closer in the drawing on folios 58 verso–59 recto (D01235–D01236; Turner Bequest XXXVII 118–119).
The figure reclining on a table-tomb on the opposite page, with other figures nearby, is echoed in Turner’s view of Llandaff Cathedral, shown at the Royal Academy in 1796 (Tate D00686; Turner Bequest XXVIII A).1

Andrew Wilton
September 2012

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.315 no.143, pl.24.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘An Ivy-Clad Church with Figures near a Tomb, and Shipping Beyond 1796–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-an-ivy-clad-church-with-figures-near-a-tomb-and-shipping-r1149923, accessed 26 April 2024.