Found in Turner's Studio: Landscape and Figures

Joseph Mallord William Turner, View of Nuneham Courtenay from the Thames  1787

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Artist’s Studio  c.1808

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for ‘The Loss of an East Indiaman’  c.1818

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy  c.1827–8

Turner travelled through Normandy and Brittany in 1826 at a time when the region was beginning to attract artists interested in the relationship of its architecture to that of England. The focal point of most tours was Mont St Michel, a casket-like architectural gem seemingly floating in the middle of the surrounding bay. Turner's watercolours of the island stress its fantastic, mirage-like qualities at the expense of giving precise details.

Gallery label, August 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study of a Teal with Outspread Wings  c.1820

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Funeral of Sir Thomas Lawrence: A Sketch from Memory  exhibited 1830

On 21 January 1830 Turner attended the funeral at St Paul's Cathedral of the portrait painter and President of the Royal Academy, Sir Thomas Lawrence. The next day he wrote to a friend: 'It is something to feel that gifted talent can be acknowledged by the many who yesterday waded up to their knees in snow and muck to see the funeral pomp swelled up by carriages of the great'. This watercolour was exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy in 1830. It well evokes the crisp, chill air of a cold January day. A group of women to the right have their hands tucked inside their muffs, their shoulders huddled forward with the cold.

Gallery label, August 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ?Study for ‘The Angel Standing in the Sun’  c.1841–6

As well as illustrations for the poetry of Samuel Rogers and Sir Walter Scott, in the early 1830s Turner also made a small group of vignette designs for John Macrone's 1835 edition of Milton's 'Poetical Works'. Three of these were engraved as illustrations to the epic poem 'Paradise Lost' (no.54). No.53, meanwhile, represents the famous episode in Book One of that poem when Satan summons his legions on the burning lake, although it was never worked up into a finished design. Many other broad colour layouts for vignette illustrations exist in the Turner Bequest.

Gallery label, August 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Coastal Terrain  c.1841–5

This watercolour was originally catalogued as part of the group of miscellaneous studies for book illustrations, which were produced by Turner between 1826 and about 1835. However, the sheet bears a Whatman watermark of 1841, which places it somewhat later than the vignette designs. The intense colours of the sunset overwhelm everything else in this subject, but it is possible to make out the vague suggestion of a tower on a headland, perhaps representing the cliffs at either Folkestone or Dover.

Gallery label, September 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bridge with Sunlight, possibly Coblenz  c.1841–5

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ?Study for the ‘Vision of Medea’  c.1824–8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sailing Boat; River Scenery; Reclining Female Nude  1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Rio di San Luca, Venice, with the Church of San Luca and the Back of the Palazzo Grimani  1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Artist’s Bedroom in the Hotel Europa (Palazzo Giustinian), Venice, with the City Beyond  1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Lausanne and Lake Geneva, from the West  1841

It was only in Turner’s lifetime that the Swiss landscape became important as a theme for painters and poets. From the 1770s onwards successive generations of artists turned to its mountains and vast, still lakes in search of subjects that fitted contemporary demands for ‘Sublime’ grandeur.

Turner visited Switzerland during his first Continental tour in 1802, when he was twenty-seven. A trip in 1836 reawakened his interest and from 1841–4, in his late sixties, he explored Swiss themes intensively. Lausanne, on a steep slope leading to the famously serene Lake Geneva, was one of Turner’s favourite subjects during his 1841 trip.

Gallery label, September 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Margate: The Great Beach with Droit House, the Pier and Lighthouse, Jarvis’s Landing Place, and a Smoking Steamer  c.1841–5

This scene of a steam-boat off the coast may show the seaside resort of Margate. The town was accessible by steam-boat, and was favoured by Londoners. Turner often used it as a base from which to explore the Kentish coast.

Turner retained an affection for Margate throughout his life. As a boy he had stayed in the town with relatives of his mother and in later life he rented rooms there, overlooking the harbour and pier.

Gallery label, February 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Zurich: Sample Study  c.1841–2

In 1842 and again in 1845 Turner completed views of Zurich, looking down towards the lake from high above the city. The appearance of the study for the earlier of these (no.22) puzzled Ruskin. He considered that it belonged 'to an embarrassing class of Turner's sketches. It is not easy to see the use of carrying them so far, unless these views were to be ultimately completed, nor why the textures should be so highly laboured throughout, while the details wanted for completion are lost sight of.' The reason for this can perhaps be attributed to the fact that Turner seems initially to have planned to develop the sketches themselves, but later decided to rework his compositions on larger pieces of paper.

Gallery label, September 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, A Group of Partly Draped Female Figures, Possibly the Fates from ‘The Golden Bough’  ?1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Arrival of Louis-Philippe: Shipping in Portsmouth Harbour  1844

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sailors Getting Pigs on Board a Boat in a Choppy Sea  1792–3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, View of St Peter’s Square, Rome, from the Loggia of the Vatican; Study for ‘Rome from the Vatican’  1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Reclining Female Nude; Travel Notes  1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study Related to ‘Two Women and a Letter’  c.1827–30

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Dancing Peasants, Brittany  c.1826–8

During his travels Turner was always interested in the distinctive qualities of local dress, occasionally making it a separate area of study. As well as this subject, there are sketches of the decorative headwear worn by Breton ladies in Turner's sketchbooks. The lively and humourous group in this work are caught in a celebratory dance, the image acting as a kind of snap-shot of traditional Breton life, much like the images tourists continue to appreciate. The second half of the 1820s was a period when Turner was particularly concerned with figure subjects, both in his oil paintings and his watercolours, although contemporary critics sometimes derided his efforts.

Gallery label, September 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study of Fish: Two Tench, a Trout and a Perch  c.1822–4

Fishing was something of an obsession for Turner (his rod is on display in Gallery 103) and earlier in his career Sir John Leicester of Tabley Hall had complained that Turner spent more time fishing than painting. He is also known to have caught fish near his Thames-side home at Twickenham, at Farnley Hall in Yorkshire, in the lake at Petworth, and at the Derbyshire home of his friend James Holworthy.

Gallery label, August 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study of Trees  c.1820–30

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Fire at the Grand Storehouse of the Tower of London  1841

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ?The Interior of a Wine Shop, Venice  1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Figures and ?Coastal Terrain  c.1841–5

Joseph Mallord William Turner, An ?Alpine Castle  c.1841