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 ... > Drawings Connected with the Kent and ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Notes on French Vocabulary; Colour Trials ?1798-1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on French Vocabulary; Colour Trials’ ?1798-1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inscription by Turner: Notes on French Vocabulary; Colour Trials ?1798–1802
D40255
Ink and watercolour on white card, 155 x 91 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink with extensive notes (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed in pencil ‘xliv.G’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram above ‘XLIV – G’ towards top left, descending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are extensive blue and grey colour trials. In the top half, Turner has inscribed the following in pen and brown ink:
Learn. Substantive. | no Comparison but by | Ajectives [sic] as. good. bonne | bad. Beau fine Positive | Plus Beau finer Comparitive [sic] | le Plus Beau Superlitive [sic] of | Femm. [Finberg: ‘Finer’] Masculine Le | White Blanc Positive | Whiter Plus Blanc Comparitive | Le Plus Blanc Super[‘li’ inserted above]tive
‘Whitest’ is written down the margin at the beginning of the last line. These notes of French vocabulary on the back of this card suggest that it may have been in use while Turner was planning his journey to the Continent in 1802 (see the ‘Switzerland 1802’ section of this catalogue). The view of London’s Somerset House on the recto (D01883; Turner Bequest XLIV G) perhaps dates from as early as 1798.

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on French Vocabulary; Colour Trials ?1798–1802 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-inscription-by-turner-notes-on-french-vocabulary-colour-r1174993, accessed 23 April 2024.