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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Cyfarthfa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Valley among Mountains (?the Taf) 1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Valley among Mountains (?the Taf)’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Valley among Mountains (?the Taf) 1798
D01635
Turner Bequest XLI 7
Pencil and wash on white wove paper, 294 x 460 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bulcke Van’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘XLI – 7’ bottom left
Inscribed in red ink ‘7’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLI – 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The inscription appears to be a transcription of ‘Bwlch-y-fan’; Finberg suggested that it referred to the Brecknock Van,1 a mountain in the Brecon Beacons. The view may show Fan Fawr, looking up the valley of the Taf, to the north of Merthyr Tydfil. Compare the drawings of views across valleys towards mountains which may be the Brecon Beacons in the contemporary Dynevor Castle sketchbook, for example Tate D01513–D01514 (Turner Bequest XL 29a–30).
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.98.
Technical notes:
There are some traces of blue wash.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Valley among Mountains (?the Taf) 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-valley-among-mountains-the-taf-r1173255, accessed 23 November 2024.