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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Folkestone and the Medway c.1821-2 > Medway Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Banks of the River Medway c.1821

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Banks of the River Medway’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Verso:
The Banks of the River Medway c.1821
D17370
Turner Bequest CXCIX 3a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 190 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg identified the lightly handled drawing on this page as part of a drawing of the banks of the River Medway, observed from a viewpoint either on the water aboard a boat, or simply from a position on the opposite bank. 1 The sketch extends across the gutter onto the facing sheet, folio 4 recto (D17371). The present section of the composition demonstrates an undulating prospect, which dips to its lowest point towards the centre of the sheet. Here an architectural structure is positioned at the water’s edge. More buildings are indicated on the ascending slope of the rightmost hill. The tower of a church seems evident towards the summit, adjacent with a cluster of lower structures. A similar landscape and arrangement of buildings is also recorded on folio 89 recto (D17504).

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.607.

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘The Banks of the River Medway c.1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-banks-of-the-river-medway-r1184647, accessed 26 April 2024.