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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Finance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Interior of a Blacksmith's Forge c.1807

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Interior of a Blacksmith's Forge’ c.1807
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
The Interior of a Blacksmith’s Forge c.1807
D08288
Turner Bequest CXXII 4
Pencil on white wove paper, 69 x 112 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘4’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXII – 4’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight but carefully observed sketch of a forge is largely obscured by pencil offsetting from the lengthy inscription on folio 3 verso opposite (D08287). The characteristic profile of an anvil, its conical horn projecting to the right, can just be made out towards the bottom left. There is a much clearer view of the same interior from a different angle on folio 5 recto (D08290). As noted under folio 8 recto (D08295), the studies may relate to the painting A Country Blacksmith Disputing upon the Price of Iron, and the Price Charged to the Butcher for Shoeing his Poney, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807 (Tate N00478).1

Matthew Imms
September 2013

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.52–3 no.68, pl.78 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Interior of a Blacksmith’s Forge c.1807 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-interior-of-a-blacksmiths-forge-r1147764, accessed 17 July 2024.