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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Brighton and Copies from Wilson 1796-7 > Wilson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Trees against a Sunset Sky, with Part of Greenwich Hospital Beyond 1796-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trees against a Sunset Sky, with Part of Greenwich Hospital Beyond’ 1796-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Verso:
Trees against a Sunset Sky, with Part of Greenwich Hospital Beyond 1796–7
D01123
Turner Bequest XXXVII 6
Watercolour on blue laid wrapping paper prepared with a red-brown wash, 113 x 93 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXXVII – 6’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The composition continues across folio 4 recto opposite (D01124; Turner Bequest XXXVII 7). The viewpoint is presumably Greenwich Park or somewhere nearby. An alternative interpretation is that this is the dome of St Paul’s, but it is difficult to identify a hilltop from which it could be seen so close; though allowance must be made for the possibility that Turner exaggerated its scale for the purposes of his composition.

Andrew Wilton
September 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Trees against a Sunset Sky, with Part of Greenwich Hospital Beyond 1796–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-trees-against-a-sunset-sky-with-part-of-greenwich-hospital-r1149815, accessed 21 November 2024.