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 A Wooded Landscape, with a Group of Rural Figures Leaning against a Wall, Perhaps in the Thames Valley c.1823-4

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Wooded Landscape, with a Group of Rural Figures Leaning against a Wall, Perhaps in the Thames Valley’ c.1823-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Verso:
A Wooded Landscape, with a Group of Rural Figures Leaning against a Wall, Perhaps in the Thames Valley c.1823–4
D17827
Turner Bequest CCIV 38a
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Blue | yellow L’ top left, ‘yellow Light’ and ‘Purple’ top centre, ‘Red Light’ top right, ‘Red Cloud Light’ above centre and ‘[?G...]’ towards centre left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this study focuses on a group of at least eight men, most of whom are leaning or sitting on a low wall in a wooded valley setting. Despite the rapidity of the sketch, the economical details appear to indicate at least one wearing a smock, suggesting that they are rural labourers; perhaps they are relaxing after a day’s work, as Turner’s colour notes above them evoke a vivid sunset sky. The setting is likely to be the Thames Valley (see under folio 2 recto; D17775); for other sky studies, see the entry for the inside of the front cover (D40982).

Matthew Imms
November 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Wooded Landscape, with a Group of Rural Figures Leaning against a Wall, Perhaps in the Thames Valley 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-a-wooded-landscape-with-a-group-of-rural-figures-leaning-r1172534, accessed 23 April 2024.