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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Hereford Court Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View on the Dee, with Dinas Brân in the Distance 1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View on the Dee, with Dinas Brân in the Distance’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 91 Recto:
View on the Dee, with Dinas Brân in the Distance 1798
D01312
Turner Bequest XXXVIII 58
Pencil on white wove paper, 229 x 332 mm
Watermark ‘1794 | J Whatman’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘58’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXXVIII 58’ bottom left, descending vertically
As noted under folio 89 recto (D01311; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 57), Turner’s view of Llangollen for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (private collection),1 engraved in 1837 (Tate impression: T04609), seems to have been composed from various sketches made on the spot. The turbulent river in the foreground of the watercolour was very likely based on details noted on this sheet. The touches of paint along the lower edge of the composition seem to have strayed from the fully coloured leaf immediately preceding, folio 90 recto (D01350; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 96).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.402 no.872, reproduced.
Technical notes:
There are smears of colour along the lower edge of the drawing.
Verso:
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Thos Jones Esqr | Landisilio’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.
Jones had presumably commissioned a watercolour based on the subject recorded on the recto of this leaf, though no such work is known. ‘Landisilio’ is evidently Llantisilio Hall, not far from Llangollen, the seat of Thomas Jones. He is not to be confused with the well-known eighteenth-century amateur artist (1742–1803), famous for his memoirs and plein-air views in Italy, whose seat was at Penkerrig, Powys.1

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
See Gage 1965, p.75 note 2.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘View on the Dee, with Dinas Brân in the Distance 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, 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-view-on-the-dee-with-dinas-bran-in-the-distance-r1173231, accessed 26 April 2024.