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

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J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and the Marches 1792-4 > Watercolours and Studies Relating to the ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketch Map of Roads and Towns near Malvern ?1793

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketch Map of Roads and Towns near Malvern’ ?1793
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Sketch Map of Roads and Towns near Malvern ?1793
D40270
Pencil on white laid paper, 130 x 191 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Worcester’, ‘Great Malvern’, ‘Evesham’, ‘Breedon’, ‘Tewsbury [sic]’, ‘Upton [?on] Severn’, ‘Ledbury’, ‘Collwall’, ‘Herefo[rd]’ and ‘Mr Arrowsmith’ within map, and with a list of places top right (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed in pencil ‘D.40270’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In addition to the map, Turner has compiled a related list of distances in pencil at the top right:
Distance
Hereford     20 
Ledbury   -  16 
Colwall       4 
Malvern       2 
Worcester     9 
Upton    –    9 
Tewksbury     6 
Finberg considered the reference to Mr Arrowsmith an indication of Turner’s point of departure for the journeys suggested by the map, which includes straight lines or ‘roads’ radiating to the various towns from a centre in Worcester. But the name may refer to Aaron Arrowsmith (1750–1823), a mapmaker in Long Acre, Covent Garden, from 1790, whom Turner may have consulted before beginning his tour. See Tate D00193 (Turner Bequest XVII R) for another reference probably to the same person. The distances given in the table are those between the towns and villages named, when visited in the sequence of the list. Part of the map is repeated in the opposite half of the leaf (D40268) and inscribed: ‘Collwall | Ledbury | Hereford’.
Technical notes:
For an overview of the various works on this folded sheet, see under D00153 (Turner Bequest XIII H a). The other side of the present section is D40269.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Sketch Map of Roads and Towns near Malvern ?1793 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, 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-sketch-map-of-roads-and-towns-near-malvern-r1141170, accessed 24 November 2024.