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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > River Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tower of London from the River Thames c.1823-4

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Tower of London from the River Thames’ c.1823-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
The Tower of London from the River Thames c.1823–4
D17811
Turner Bequest CCIV 30
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 190 mm
Part watermark ‘R Bar | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘30’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCIV – 30’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this slight sketch shows the skyline of the Tower of London, seen to the north-east, with the White Tower in the distance above St Thomas’s Tower and the waterfront Traitors’ Gate. This is one of a number of sketches which informed Turner’s watercolour of the Tower of about 1825 (private collection),1 as discussed in the entry for folio 34 recto (D17819), the closest to the finished design. There is another view of the fortress from a similar angle on folio 29 verso opposite (D17810).
For other London and Thames views, see under folio 2 recto (D17775).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.358 no.515.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
November 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Tower of London from the River Thames c.1823–4 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-tower-of-london-from-the-river-thames-r1172519, accessed 22 September 2024.