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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Lowland and River Colour Studies c.1820 ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Lake and Hills with a Road through Trees c.1820-40

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Lake and Hills with a Road through Trees’ c.1820-40
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Lake and Hills with a Road through Trees c.1820–40
D25402
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 279
Watercolour on white wove paper, 173 x 243 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘279’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 279’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study, with a rural road leading to a valley with the grey waters of what may be a lake below craggy hills, has a more topographical air than many in the present generic section but, if that was Turner’s intention, the subject remains elusive.
Eric Shanes has tentatively offered alternatives of the English Lake District,1 Scotland,2 Wales or Yorkshire,3 all terrains well known to Turner from the 1790s onwards. Compare the ‘colour beginning’ of the overhanging Kilnsey Crag in Upper Wharfedale, made after Turner’s 1816 tour (Tate D17205; Turner Bequest CXCVII O), though the slight similarity of the formations is probably fortuitous.
1
See Shanes 1997, p.98.
2
Ibid., p.101.
3
Ibid., p.103.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII | 279’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
December 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Lake and Hills with a Road through Trees c.1820–40 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-lake-and-hills-with-a-road-through-trees-r1183226, accessed 19 April 2024.