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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Architectural Drawings for Commissions > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Stourhead: View over the Lake ?1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Stourhead: View over the Lake’ ?1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Stourhead: View over the Lake ?1798
D01908
Turner Bequest XLIV f
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 405 x 541 mm
Watermark ‘W[...]’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below left of centre
Stamped in black ‘XLIV – f’ and ‘XLIV’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a preparatory study for the same composition as Tate D01909 (Turner Bequest XLIV g), which approaches the identical view in terms of dramatic chiaroscuro rather than the translucent washes employed here. The view is taken from a point facing the house and church across the lake; see Turner’s drawing of the opposite view (Tate D01907; Turner Bequest XLIV e), which may have been intended as a subject in the same series. The portico beside the lake is that of the 1745 Temple of Flora, by Henry Flitcroft; just visible over the spur of the hill in the centre of the view is the tower of St Peter’s Church.1
1
For Stourhead in general see Kenneth Woodbridge, Landscape and Antiquity: Aspects of English Culture at Stourhead, 1718–1838, Oxford 1970.
Verso:
Blank; some grey washes transferred from another surface. These may relate to the second of the two studies of this composition (Tate D01909; Turner Bequest XLIV g).

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Stourhead: View over the Lake ?1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-stourhead-view-over-the-lake-r1174081, accessed 21 November 2024.