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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > European River and Lowland Scenes > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Farmhouse at the Bottom of a Gorge c.1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Farmhouse at the Bottom of a Gorge’ c.1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Farmhouse at the Bottom of a Gorge c.1830
D25122
Turner Bequest CCLXII 22
Chalk and pencil on blue wove paper, 188 x 276 mm
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXII 22’ top right, upside down
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXII 22’ top left, upside down
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Standing at the bottom of this deep and rocky gorge is a farmhouse, or possibly a mill, with an outhouse to the left. Close by is a hay wagon, while a curved line of chalk reaching to the bottom left suggests the course of a stream, whose source appears to be somewhere among the high rocks in the background. At the top of the gorge, in the centre, is the outline of another building. Above this a chalk mark suggests the low-hanging position of the sun.
This sheet is not listed in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory, where the somewhat miscellaneous Turner Bequest section CCLXII only comprises ‘1–21. Parcel of sketches on blue paper’, dated to about 1830.1 The present work was presumably an addendum owing to its similar size and media.
There is a sketch of an unrelated subject on the verso (D40120). For the overall grouping and dating of these works, see the section Introduction.

Ben Pollitt
August 2019

1
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.814.

How to cite

Ben Pollitt, ‘A Farmhouse at the Bottom of a Gorge c.1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-farmhouse-at-the-bottom-of-a-gorge-r1202187, accessed 09 May 2024.