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 On the Banks of the ?River Medway c.1821

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘On the Banks of the ?River Medway’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 46 Recto:
On the Banks of the ?River Medway c.1821
D17443
Turner Bequest CXCIX 46
Pencil on white wove paper, 190 x 112 mm
Stamped in black ‘CXCIX – 46’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the sketchbook turned vertically, the drawings on this page display scenes on the banks of the River Medway as identified by Finberg.1 Composed close to the top edge of the sheet, the topmost sketch shows a stone building at left, somewhat like a keep in its sturdy appearance. Its river-facing wall is marked with thin slivers of window. Additional buildings mark the distant hillside behind, and shore at right. The handling is neat and precise, the pencil sharpened to a fine point.
The second view is composed as a very slender band which once again stretches across the full width of the page. A small boat floats at far right, and additional vessels delineated as a vague group populate the scene more broadly.

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.609.

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘On 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-on-the-banks-of-the-river-medway-r1184720, accessed 26 April 2024.