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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Donkey and Cart with Figures in a Landscape c.1823-4

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 24 Recto:
A Donkey and Cart with Figures in a Landscape c.1823–4
D17879
Turner Bequest CCV 24
Watercolour on white wove paper, 98 x 162 mm
Watermark ‘1821’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘24’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCV – 24’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Whether from imagination or as a recollection of an incident on the road, despite its economy of means this quick study catches the whimsical character of an incident with a man raising his arms and whip to berate a rather forlorn donkey, with onlookers in an elemental setting. It is one of a sequence of fourteen monochrome, tonal studies of landscapes and cloudy skies running from about the middle of the sketchbook onwards; for the others and further discussion, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Donkey and Cart with Figures in a Landscape c.1823–4 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-donkey-and-cart-with-figures-in-a-landscape-r1172591, accessed 29 March 2024.