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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Cowes Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Procession or Group of Figures, Possibly at a London Hall or Church 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Procession or Group of Figures, Possibly at a London Hall or Church’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
A Procession or Group of Figures, Possibly at a London Hall or Church 1827
D18002
Turner Bequest CCVII 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Red stripe | white | [...] whi | [?Dress] | Red W | Red B’ towards top left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg suggested that the rapid sketches of a large, dark interior on folios 3 recto and 5 recto (D17995, D17998) might show ‘a Banquet at the Mansion House’,1 meaning the neo-classical, so-called Egyptian Hall at the Lord Mayor of London’s official residence,2 but there seems to be no great resemblance, and the setting may be a London church or other grand interior. The sketch here seems to be related, albeit the only context for the lightly indicated, heavily annotated group of figures (perhaps in ceremonial dress) is the base of a large column in the brief continuation on folio 6 verso opposite (D18001).

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.625.
2
See ‘Inside the Mansion House’, City of London, accessed 15 December 2014, http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/history-and-heritage/mansion-house/Pages/inside-the-mansion-house.aspx.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Procession or Group of Figures, Possibly at a London Hall or Church 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-procession-or-group-of-figures-possibly-at-a-london-hall-r1183490, accessed 21 November 2024.