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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern France c.1826-32 > Loose Studies of Northern France > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant Hills, ?Northern France c.1826-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant Hills, ?Northern France’ c.1826-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Distant Hills, ?Northern France c.1826–8
D40129
Watercolour on blue paper, 130 x 185 mm
Stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCLIX – 147’ bottom centre
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This exact subject of this view of distant hills seen across a wide expanse, presumably the sea or an estuary, is unknown although a location in Northern France is suggested by the sketch of Tours in the Loire Valley on the verso of the sheet; see See entry for Tate D24712 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 147). Turner specialist Ian Warrell has suggested that a hill-top castle is also depicted in the scene.1
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.222 under no.84.
Technical Notes:
The sheet belongs to a batch of blue paper used by Turner made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart at De Montault Mill, Coombe Down, Bath. 1
Unlike work on the verso of this sheet, this study was not catalogued by A.J. Finberg in his 1909 Inventory so lacks the usual Turner Bequest number.2
1
Ibid. p.238.
2
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909.
Verso:

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Distant Hills, ?Northern France c.1826–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-distant-hills-northern-france-r1185533, accessed 25 April 2024.