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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Architectural Drawings for Commissions > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Wilton House: Studies of Sculpture and Architectural Details c.1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Wilton House: Studies of Sculpture and Architectural Details’ c.1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Wilton House: Studies of Sculpture and Architectural Details c.1798
D01890
Turner Bequest XLIV N
Pencil on thick white cartridge paper, 285 x 220 mm
Watermark ‘J W’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Henery 8 Arms’ towards top right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram at centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘N’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLIV – N’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The identification of these studies is due to the late architectural historian Sir Howard Colvin.1 One of the watercolour subjects that Turner executed for Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s History of Wiltshire was of Wilton House (private collection).2 Home of the Earls of Pembroke, the house, close to Salisbury, was built in the sixteenth century and added to in the seventeenth century under the supervision of Inigo Jones. As at Salisbury Cathedral, so at Wilton too James Wyatt (1747–1813) was employed from 1801 to make improvements. Turner’s watercolour shows the east front of the house before Wyatt’s alterations. The arms of Henry VIII to which Turner’s note refers are now incorporated into the north front.
1
Personal communication.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.323 no.214.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Wilton House: Studies of Sculpture and Architectural Details c.1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-wilton-house-studies-of-sculpture-and-architectural-details-r1174090, accessed 19 April 2024.