Joseph Mallord William Turner Partial Copy of 'The Enchanted Isle' by Antoine Watteau; Two Composition Studies for 'Rome from the Vatican' c.1815-20
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Recto:
Partial Copy of ‘The Enchanted Isle’ by Antoine Watteau; Two Composition Studies for ‘Rome from the Vatican’ circa 1815–20
D10630
Turner Bequest CXLI 27
Turner Bequest CXLI 27
Pencil on white wove paper, 88 x 114 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with colour notes ‘pink’ and ‘Brown’ within the Watteau copy, right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘27’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CXLI 27’ top left, inverted
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with colour notes ‘pink’ and ‘Brown’ within the Watteau copy, right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘27’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CXLI 27’ top left, inverted
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.406, CXLI 27, as ‘Group of figures: possibly copy of a Watteau; and two studies for pictures’.
1971
Jerrold Ziff, review of John Gage, Colour in Turner (1969), in The Art Bulletin, vol.53, 1971, pp.125–6.
1974
Gerald Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A. 1802–20; Genius of the Romantic, London 1974, p.174 reproduced.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.78.
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.134 note 40.
1983
John Gage, in Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, p.99.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.106.
1984
Selby Whittingham, ‘Watteau’s L’Isle Enchantée: from the French Régence to the English Regency’, Pantheon, vol.42, 1984, pp.399ff.
1985
Selby Whittingham, ‘What You Will; or Some Notes Regarding the Influence of Watteau on Turner and Other British Artists (I)’, Turner Studies, vol.5, no.1, Summer 1985, pp.10–1 reproduced pl.12.
1987
John Gage, J.M.W. Turner: ‘A Wonderful Range of Mind’, New Haven and London 1987, pp.122–3 reproduced fig.179, 178.
1987
Jean Golt, ‘Beauty and Meaning on Richmond Hill: New Light on Turner’s Masterpiece of 1819’, Turner Studies, vol.7, no.2, Winter 1987, p.15.
2001
Martin Butlin, ‘England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent’s Birthday’, in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann eds., The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, p.89.
2001
Michael Kitson, ‘Watteau, Jean-Antoine (1684–1721)’, in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann eds., The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, p.372.
2010
Ian Warrell in David Solkin ed., Turner and the Masters, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2010, p.230 note 8.
The drawing after Watteau’s Enchanted Isle, made with the sketchbook inverted, is mainly on folio 26 verso, this being only a slight extension of it with further colour notes; see notes to D10629 for the subject and background.
The other studies here are drawn within pencil lines, running vertically on the left of the leaf. They are different in handling and must have been drawn at a different time. David Hill’s suggestion to Selby Whittingham1 that they are ideas for Rome from the Vatican. Raffaelle, Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia (Tate N00503)2, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1820, is surely right. The encircling composition, loggia and figure of Raphael can be made out in both while in the lower of the two studies Bernini’s arcades are also discernible. This might argue for further recourse to the sketchbook in the short period after Turner’s return from Italy when he was working on the picture; the smudge or fingerprint of brown oil or varnish presumably occurred at the same time. While the drawing after Watteau must be earlier, the conjunction on a single page of references to artists and Old Masters whom Turner actually painted in person is very suggestive; see notes to D10629 for the later Watteau Study by Fresnoy’s Rules (Tate N00514).
David Blayney Brown
July 2011
How to cite
David Blayney Brown, ‘Partial Copy of ‘The Enchanted Isle’ by Antoine Watteau; Two Composition Studies for ‘Rome from the Vatican’ c.1815–20 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www