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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription not by Turner: A Name and Address ?1793

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inscription not by Turner: A Name and Address ?1793
D40240
Pencil on white wove paper, 269 x 222 mm
Inscribed in an unknown hand in pencil ‘Revd Thos: Leman | [blank] Crescent | Bath’ top left
Stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left
Inscribed in ?a later hand in pencil ‘8 – G’ top centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘XXII B’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘Recto D.00355 / Verso D.40240’ bottom left
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
It is not clear who wrote the Rev. Thomas Leman’s name and address on the back of Turner’s drawing – evidently not Leman himself, since the identity of the crescent has not been remembered. Turner was in the habit of noting the names of patrons and pupils on his drawings, but this inscription is not in his hand. Leman, however, may have requested a watercolour based on the drawing on the recto (D00355; Turner Bequest XXII B).

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Inscription not by Turner: A Name and Address ?1793 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-inscription-not-by-turner-a-name-and-address-r1140282, accessed 21 November 2024.