Joseph Mallord William Turner The Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825-36
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
The Thames from Richmond Hill
c.1825-36
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825–36
D25471
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 348
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 348
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 320 x 560 mm, laid down on tissue paper
Watermark ‘B.E. & S. | 1823’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Watermark ‘B.E. & S. | 1823’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1891
Fourth Loan Collection, Ruskin Art Museum, Meersbrook Park, Sheffield, 1891–5, Leeds Art Gallery, 1896, National Gallery, London, 1897, Glasgow Art Gallery, 1898–9, National Gallery, London, 1900, Newport Free Library and Museum, 1901–4, Wolverhampton, 1905, Municipal School of Art, Manchester, 1906–8, Nottingham Art Gallery, 1909–11, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1912, York City Art Gallery, May–September 1913, Corporation Art Gallery, Bury, 1913, Art Gallery, Swansea, April 1914, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil, 1915, Tate Gallery, London, 1916–21, Newport, 1922, Whitworth Institute Art Galleries, Manchester, 1923–4, Tate Gallery, 1925, Wolverhampton, 1926, Tate Gallery, 1927–30, transferred to the British Museum, London, 1931 (no overall catalogue but numbered 5, as ‘The Thames, from Richmond’).
1934
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, March 1934–? (no catalogue).
1971
Victoria and Albert Museum Circulation Department Conservation Studio, London, ?1971 (no catalogue).
1980
Turner at the Bankside Gallery: Drawings & Water-colours of British River Scenes from the British Museum, Bankside Gallery, London, November–December 1980 (69, reproduced, as ‘The Thames from Richmond Hill’. ?c.1825).
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (200, reproduced, as ‘Étude pour «Richmond Hill», c.1825).
1991
Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, Tate Gallery, London, January–May 1991 (32, as ‘The Thames from Richmond Hill: preparatory study’, c.1823–5).
1997
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: A Tate Gallery Collection Exhibition, Yokohama Museum of Art, June–August 1997, Fukuoka Art Museum, September–October, Nagoya City Art Museum, October–December 1997 (69, reproduced in colour, as ‘The Thames from Richmond Hill’, c.1830–6).
1997
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, March–June 1997 (78, reproduced in colour, as ‘The Thames from Richmond Hill’, c.1830–6).
References
1896
William White, Notes on a Biographical Series of Fifty Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Belonging to the National Gallery Collection, London 1896, p.32 no.42, as ‘Rapid Study of the Thames Valley from Richmond Hill’.
1906
A Catalogue of an Exhibition of Studies & Drawings ... by Frederic Shields ...Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Municipal School of Art, Manchester 1906, p.[10] no. 26, as ‘The Thames, from Richmond’. c.1825.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.841, CCLXIII 348, as ‘The Thames, from Richmond’. c.1820–30.
1912
Catalogue of Original Drawings in Water Colour, Etc., by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Lent by the Trustees of the National Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Laing Art Gallery and Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne 1912, p.10 no.25, as ‘The Thames from Richmond’. c.1825.
1969
Graham Reynolds, Turner, London 1969, pl.88.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.96 under no.256.
1974
Gerald Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A. 1802–20: Genius of the Romantic, London 1974, p.30, reproduced in colour, as ‘sketch for England: Richmond Hill’.
1977
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner Sketches 1789–1820, London 1977, p.148, reproduced in colour as ‘sketch for England: Richmond Hill’.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.359 under no.518.
1983
Andrew Wilton in John 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.259 no.200, reproduced, as ‘Étude pour «Richmond Hill». c.1825).
1991
Ian Warrell, Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1991, p.42 no.32, reproduced, as ‘The Thames from Richmond Hill: preparatory study’. c.1823–5.
1997
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.96, 106 (p.96 Appendix I under ‘England and Wales Series’, as ‘Study for Richmond Terrace, Surrey’. c.1836, p.106 Appendix II, as ‘Study: Richmond Terrace, Surrey’).
Turner had a long association with the Richmond upon Thames area,1 and his most ambitious version of the view west up the river from Richmond Hill was the large painting England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent’s Birthday, exhibited in 1819 (Tate N00502).2 He subsequently produced two watercolours of the view: Richmond Hill of about 1825 or possibly a little earlier (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),3 engraved in 1826 for the Literary Souvenir (Tate impression: T06132); and Richmond Terrace, Surrey of about 1836 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool),4 engraved in 1838 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04611, T06128).
The present study has been linked variously to both watercolours in general,5 to the Literary Souvenir,6 or to the later England and Wales version.7 Ian Warrell has noted the ‘halo-like forms’ prefiguring the ‘genteel figures’ in the first of these – although they do not match exactly those in either of the watercolours – while also observing that the pencil outlines of trees towards the right prefigure those in the later version only.8 The wall indicated at the far left, again only seen in the finished England and Wales composition, leaves the dating of the present work in relation to the two watercolours in some doubt.
See also the introductions to the present subsection of identified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this work has been assigned.
Technical notes:
The sheet has been laid down on tissue paper, and the ‘B.E. & S. | 1823’ note by Warrell1 is not readily evident. The top edge has been trimmed irregularly; there are strips of brown colour along it towards the right, suggesting that Turner worked on another landscape composition ‘above’ before dividing the sheet.
The sheet has been laid down on tissue paper, and the ‘B.E. & S. | 1823’ note by Warrell1 is not readily evident. The top edge has been trimmed irregularly; there are strips of brown colour along it towards the right, suggesting that Turner worked on another landscape composition ‘above’ before dividing the sheet.
Verso:
Blank (laid down and not examined).
Blank (laid down and not examined).
Matthew Imms
March 2013
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘The Thames from Richmond Hill c.1825–36 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, December 2013, https://www