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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Copy-Drawings 1794-8 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscriptions by Turner: Numbers and Place Name; Colour Trials ?1796

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Numbers and Place Name; Colour Trials’ ?1796
Inscriptions by Turner: Numbers and Place Name; Colour Trials ?1796
D40055
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 151 x 216 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ’68 | L | L | [?L] 8’ towards top left, and in watercolour ‘68’ above right of centre and ’68 | LLewes [sic] Sussex’ below centre
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom left
Inscribed in pencil ‘xxxii B’ top left
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The recto (D00858; Turner Bequest XXXII B) is Turner’s watercolour of a bridge at Lewes in East Sussex, after an original probably by Michael Angelo Rooker.
The grey, brown and buff watercolour trials here are in a similar palette, as are the brush inscriptions in grey, ‘68’ (twice) and ‘Lewes Sussex’. The first word incorporates an extra ‘L’ at the beginning, and both overwrite other variants, perhaps as much to test the handling of the brush as to note the subject. The significance of these associated numbers, which also appear along with the initial ‘L’ in pencil, is unknown.

Matthew Imms
November 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Numbers and Place Name; Colour Trials ?1796’, catalogue entry, November 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/inscriptions-by-turner-numbers-and-place-name-colour-trials-r1212989, accessed 31 July 2026.