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 View from Blackheath with St Paul's Cathedral in the Distance 1796-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View from Blackheath with St Paul's Cathedral in the Distance’ 1796-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Verso:
View from Blackheath with St Paul’s Cathedral in the Distance 1796–7
D01121
Turner Bequest XXXVII 4
Watercolour and white chalk on blue laid wrapping paper prepared with a red-brown wash, 113 x 93 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXXVII – 4’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The composition continues across folio 3 recto opposite (D01122; Turner Bequest XXXVII 5). Other drawings in this book corroborate that Turner was making studies of the views from the hills to the south-east of London: Greenwich, Blackheath and Nunhead. This is no doubt from one such viewpoint. Compare folios 3 verso–4 recto, 25 verso–26 recto and 28 verso–29 recto (D01123–D01124, D01167–D01168, D01173–D01174; Turner Bequest XXXVII 6–7, 50–51, 56–57). Although it is fairly clearly a study of a specific place, with the rutted road going over the hill to the left, the turbulent atmosphere suggests a grander, more dramatic reference. The composition is reminiscent of Turner’s ideas for a Biblical subject in his Dolbadarn sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest XLVI), perhaps for his lost painting The Army of the Medes destroyed in the Desart [sic] by a Whirlwind – foretold by Jeremiah, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801.1

Andrew Wilton
September 2012

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, New Haven and London 1978, revised edition 1984, pp.13–15 no.15.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘View from Blackheath with St Paul’s Cathedral in the Distance 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-view-from-blackheath-with-st-pauls-cathedral-in-the-distance-r1149813, accessed 21 November 2024.