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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Kirkby Lonsdale c.1817

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Kirkby Lonsdale c.1817
D17186
Turner Bequest CXCVI V
Gouache, pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 387 x 485 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1814’
Stamped in black ‘CXCVI-V’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This colour study relates to the finished watercolour Kirkby Lonsdale Churchyard,1 engraved by Charles Heath (1785–1848) in 1821 and published as part of Whitaker’s History of Richmondshire (Tate impressions: T04478, T04479, T06052). With its view of the Lune Valley hills and the winding river, it is not surprising that this study was in the past linked to the watercolour Crook of Lune (Courtauld Gallery, London) for which there is a separate colour study (Tate D17199; Turner Bequest CXCVII I). It was identified as one of two colour studies for Kirkby Lonsdale Churchyard by David Hill2 (for the other see Tate D17187; Turner Bequest CXCVI W) and shows the vista known as both ‘Turner’s View’ and ‘Ruskin’s View’.
Hill identifies a pencil sketch made during Turner’s 1816 tour of Yorkshire as the source of both the colour studies and the finally realised watercolour (see the entry for Tate D11528; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 5a, where Hill also notes the significance of Tate D11125; Turner Bequest CXLV 58a).
This colour study sets out the basic composition of the finished watercolour, the winding river, hills beyond and foreground area discernable, with warm yellows and reddish tones used to denote the land and blues splashing across the sky and in the river. Like the other ‘colour beginnings’ in this group, the study presents a sense of the overall composition without the inclusion of foreground detail.
See also the introduction to the Richmondshire ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this study has been assigned.
1
Wilton 1979, p.366 no.578. Bonhams sale, 25 January 2012 (lot 12).
2
Hill 1984, pp.31, 92, ill.109.
Technical notes:
There is a vertical fold at the centre of the sheet.
Verso:
Blank

Elizabeth Jacklin
February 2015

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Kirkby Lonsdale c.1817 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2015, 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-kirkby-lonsdale-r1183198, accessed 24 November 2024.