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 Inscription by Turner: Details of Commissions c.1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Details of Commissions’ c.1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 107 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: Details of Commissions c.1798
D01249
Ink on white wove paper, 332 x 229 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry)
Watermark ‘1794 | J Whatman’
The recto of this leaf is blank. Here, opposite the blank rear paste-down and inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, Turner has written in pen and brown ink:
Anthony Bacon near Newbury Berks | 4 Drawings of the Iron Works of Richd. Crawshay Esqr. at Cyfarthfa | near Merthyr Tidvil – 18 Miles from Cardiff – 16 from Brecon – | 9 [‘10’ inserted above] ½ by 13 Inches – 5 G. each – | 2. Mr Blackshaw – Carf Carfilly Castle
Turner made no drawings at Cyfarthfa in this sketchbook, but the first few leaves of the Cyfarthfa book (Tate; Turner Bequest XLI) are devoted to views of Richard Crawshay’s ironworks there. Anthony Bacon’s commission, together with Colt Hoare’s for views of Hampton Court – see folios 101 recto and 102 recto (D01320, D01321; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 66, 67) – may have been a principal motivation for the tour. No finished views of Cyfarthfa are recorded, however.
Turner’s interest in early industrial sites is evident from numerous drawings scattered through the sketchbooks of this decade, and by the fact that he owned a series of drawings by P.J. de Loutherbourg (1740–1812) showing copper works and an iron foundry at Clasmount near Swansea (Tate D36370–D36375, D36377–D36381 and D36406; Turner Bequest CCCLXXII 12–22, 46) and scenes at Coalbrookdale (Tate D36405, D36407–D36409; Turner Bequest CCCLXXII 45, 47–49).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Inscription by Turner: Details of Commissions c.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-inscription-by-turner-details-of-commissions-r1173247, accessed 25 April 2024.