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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Kirkstall Lock Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner House by a River, with Distant Church Tower 1809

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘House by a River, with Distant Church Tower’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
House by a River, with Distant Church Tower 1809
D12242
Turner Bequest CLV 3
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 231 mm (top and bottom left corners missing)
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’, bottom right
Stamped in black in ‘CLV 3’, bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is the right part of what was originally a double-page spread, continued to the left on D12244; Turner Bequest CLV 4a. The subject is unidentified, but appears to show a view along a canal to a bridge with a small town to the left, and a church tower in the centre of the composition. Given that other sketches from the sketchbook record views near Cassiobury Park, it is possible that the present subject is one on the Grand Union Canal in the Colne Valley near Rickmansworth; for the canal, see note to D12241; Turner Bequest CLV 2.
Verso:
Blank, except for an inscription (?by one of the Executors of the Turner Bequest) in pencil ‘Sched 154.16’. 154 appears to be a mistake for 164. The majority of pages in this sketchbook are similarly inscribed. For the significance of this see notes to D12241 and 12244; Turner Bequest CLV 2, 4a.

David Hill
June 2009

How to cite

David Hill, ‘House by a River, with Distant Church Tower 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-house-by-a-river-with-distant-church-tower-r1134654, accessed 18 May 2024.