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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Italianate Landscapes and Classical ... > Studies of Landscapes, Townscapes and ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription not by Turner: The Artist's Name and Address; Colour Tests c.1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription not by Turner: The Artist's Name and Address; Colour Tests’ c.1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inscription not by Turner: The Artist’s Name and Address; Colour Tests c.1824
D40391
Ink and watercolour on paper, 162 x 204 mm
Watermark ‘Wm Gat[e]r’ (torn)
Inscribed in ink ‘J.M.W. Turner, Esqr | Queen Ann St. West’ at centre
Inscribed in ink with ?payment or delivery mark ‘2’ above address over postmark stamped in black ‘[... | Pall Mall]’
Stamped in red with postmark ’10.F.NOON.10 | 1.MY | x 1824 x’ in oval towards top left, upside down
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner has used this envelope, postmarked May 1824, for watercolour test strokes in several strong colours. There is a drawing for a composition on the verso (Tate D34798; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 331).
Technical notes:
The sheet bears the watermark of William Gater, who operated at West End Mill, South Stoneham, Hampshire.1 A piece was torn away from the lower edge and left adhering to the wax seal at the top centre of the other side when the envelope was opened.

Matthew Imms
August 2016

1
See Peter Bower, Turner’s Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of his Drawing Papers 1787–1820, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1990, p.96 note 1.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription not by Turner: The Artist’s Name and Address; Colour Tests c.1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-inscription-not-by-turner-the-artists-name-and-address-r1185724, accessed 26 April 2024.