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 ... > Thames Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Thames from Richmond Hill’ c.1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 82 Recto:
The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825
D18692
Turner Bequest CCXII 82
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 188 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Girls play with stones]’ top centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘82’ top left, upside down [now very faint]
Stamped in black ‘CCXII – 82’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this sketch looking west over the River Thames from Richmond Hill from a similar viewpoint to that for folio 5 verso (D18603), under other views in this sketchbook and related works are discussed. Here Turner seems to have made a written note of girls playing a game at the top of Nightingale Lane, with The Wick to the left. See a similar note inside the back cover (D40973).
The present drawing is among those which would have generally informed two watercolours: Richmond Hill of about 1825 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),1 engraved in 1826 for the Literary Souvenir (Tate impression: T06132); and Richmond Terrace, Surrey of about 1836 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool),2 engraved in 1838 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04611, T06128). The framing devices of the house and trees are seen in the England and Wales design.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.359 no.518, pl.135; see also Shanes 2000, p.180.
2
Wilton 1979, p.403 no.879, reproduced; see also Shanes 1979, p.156, and Shanes 2004, p.128.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The River Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825 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-the-river-thames-from-richmond-hill-r1172811, accessed 25 April 2024.