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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Monro School c.1794-8 > Album of Copies of Swiss and Italian ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin A Capriccio with Classical Ruins and Figures c.1794-8

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin, ‘A Capriccio with Classical Ruins and Figures’ c.1794-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
Folio 28 Recto:
A Capriccio with Classical Ruins and Figures c.1794–8
D36506
Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 27 b
Pencil and grey wash on white wove paper, 196 x 149 mm mounted on white cartridge paper, 480 x 368 mm
Inscribed in pencil ‘27’ on mount, bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXIV – 27 a b’ on mount, bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The work is mounted with the album page turned vertically, on the same sheet as D36505 (Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 27 a). Finberg states1 that this is a copy after Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691–1765), without citing a source. It is also reminiscent of the classical fantasies of Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721–1820). Thomas Girtin copied Clérisseau for John Henderson (1764–1843); an example from Henderson’s collection showing the Temple of Concord, Rome is in the British Museum, London (1878–12–28–35).2 See also folio 29 recto (D36507; Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 28).
1
MS note, Tate catalogue files.
2
See Andrew Wilton, ‘The “Monro School” Question: Some Answers’, Turner Studies, vol.4, no.2, Winter 1984, p.11, ill.4.
Verso:
Blank (laid down).

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Capriccio with Classical Ruins and Figures c.1794–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-thomas-girtin-a-capriccio-with-classical-ruins-and-figures-r1140574, accessed 21 November 2024.