Joseph Mallord William Turner Hampton Court Palace from the River Thames c.1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 41 Verso:
Hampton Court Palace from the River Thames c.1827
D20796
Turner Bequest CCXXVII 39a
Turner Bequest CCXXVII 39a
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 185 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?7]’ top right, ‘Windows’ above right of centre, ‘2’ and ‘4’ left of centre, and ‘4’ and ‘7’ towards bottom right, all in relation to architectural details
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?7]’ top right, ‘Windows’ above right of centre, ‘2’ and ‘4’ left of centre, and ‘4’ and ‘7’ towards bottom right, all in relation to architectural details
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1827
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.699, CCXXVII 39a, as ‘Buildings and trees’, c.1827.
1979
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales 1825–1838, London 1979, p.156.
2006
J.R. Piggott, ‘Salerooms Report’, Turner Society News, no.102, March 2006, p.9.
Subsequent to Finberg’s 1909 Inventory, both he and the Turner scholar C.F. Bell identified the subject here as ‘Hampton Ct Palace.1 Eric Shanes and Jan Piggott2 have noted the connection with the watercolour Hampton Court Palace of about 1827 (private collection),3 engraved in 1829 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impression: T04550).
The top drawing focuses on the detached Banqueting House to the left of centre and the crenellations and turrets of the Tudor part of the palace towards the right, shows roughly the same aspect of the complex, north across the River Thames, as in the watercolour. The sketch towards the bottom left repeats the details shown in the top right corner before continuing on to the junction of the Tudor ranges with the Baroque part of the south front, where the ‘4’ bays of the first section of that façade are noted. At the bottom right is a repetition of the latter element, with the emphasis now on the roofline, and a further note of the ‘7’ bays leading towards the central three-bay portion of that symmetrical sequence, loosely indicated at the bottom right. Above this last drawing is a rough note of the vertical arrangement of the window surrounds against the brickwork, the middle one in most instances being circular.
Matthew Imms
November 2015
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Hampton Court Palace from the River Thames c.1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www