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

This sheet contains several sketches: at the top is a sketch of the junction of the Greta and the Tees near Rokeby Hall, taken from across the River Tees on the left bank, with Mortham Tower to the left. Mortham Tower is a fortified manor house, some parts of which date back to the fourteenth century. It is a private house, but may be seen from the public footpath nearby. It figures in Sir Walter Scott’s celebrated poem Rokeby, published in 1813.

Turner first sketched Mortham Tower and the Junction of the Greta and Tees in 1816 in the Yorkshire 4 sketchbook (Tate D11479; Turner Bequest CXLVII 25), from near the right bank of the River Tees. On the same visit he also sketched a closer view of the building in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11212; Turner Bequest CXLV 105a). He revisited the subject in 1831 in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border sketchbook (Tate D25830–D25831; Turner Bequest CCLXVI 35a–36), and on that occasion developed a studio watercolour of the Junction of the Greta and Tees (Private Collection)1 for engraving to illustrate ‘Rokeby’ in Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works, published in 1834.

The present sketch is related to the 1816 visit by Finberg and Herrmann, but it has since been related to the 1831 visit.2 In 1816 Turner seems to have sketched only from the right (south) bank of the Tees, and found it difficult to find a viewpoint from which to combine Mortham Tower with the Junction of the Greta and Tees. The coincidence of sketches at Mayburgh and Eamont Bridge on the verso (see below), which he also visited in 1831, confirms the date. In 1831 he made his way round to the left (north) bank, as this offered much more satisfactory possibilities. A stylistic affinity between the present sketch and that in the Minstrelsy sketchbook seems evident, and it seems possible that the present sketch also informed the finished watercolour to some extent. It is actually quite a trek from the right bank to the left at Rokeby, involving a detour of a couple of miles upstream to cross the Tees at Abbey Bridge. This is plain testimony to the effort that Turner was always prepared to expend in finding the material that he needed.

Immediately below and right of the sketch of the Greta and Tees is a thumbnail sketch of a castle or tower on a terraced mound. This has not yet been identified, but is possibly a subject at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, since a similar feature appears in sketches on the verso.

Below that is a quick sketch of a detached double-fronted house. This is perhaps the former house of Henry Cooke, the papermaker at Egglestone Abbey.3 Turner sketched this on all three of his visits to the area; first in 1797 in the North of England sketchbook (Tate D00933; Turner Bequest XXXIV 27); secondly in 1816 in the Yorkshire 4 sketchbook (Tate D11492; Turner Bequest CXLVII 31a), and finally in 1831 in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border sketchbook (Tate D25828; Turner Bequest CCLXVI 34a). The house in the present sketch is close to that depicted in the latter. Turner would have passed close by on his way from the right bank of the Tees at Rokeby to the left opposite the Junction of the Great and Tees.

Below, the rest of the sheet is filled with a rough sketch map of the ‘Tees’ and roads on either side, joined by a bridge to the right. In a very schematic way this could represent his route from the Rokeby side of the Tees to the other, and the inscribed ‘W’ could stand for the hamlet of Westwick on the way.

The folio has three neatly trimmed edges but is roughly torn at the right edge, as if detached from a sketchbook.