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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North Wales 1799-1801 > Drawings Related to the Welsh Tour of > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Bard Playing a Harp, with Other Figures in a Mountainous Landscape with a River and Lake in a Distant Valley c.1799-1800

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Bard Playing a Harp, with Other Figures in a Mountainous Landscape with a River and Lake in a Distant Valley’ c.1799-1800
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Bard Playing a Harp, with Other Figures in a Mountainous Landscape with a River and Lake in a Distant Valley c.1799–1800
D04185
Turner Bequest LXX h
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 579 x 869 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Watermark ‘J Whatman 1794’
Inscribed in red ink ‘lxx.h’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXX – h’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This large study seems to be complementary to the equally large Destruction of the Bards by Edward I (Tate D04168; Turner Bequest LXX Q): while it almost suppresses the landscape element in the design, its figures fit snugly into the composition of the other watercolour. A pencil sketch in the contemporary Dolbadarn sketchbook (Tate D02156; Turner Bequest XLVI 109), seems to be a preliminary note of this subject: the Bard, as described by Thomas Gray in his poem of 1757, awaits his fate at the hands of Edward’s army on a high crag, from which he will eventually precipitate himself. Another sheet (Tate D04165; Turner Bequest LXX N) contains studies of similar figures.
Technical notes:
The sheet is stained and torn.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Bard Playing a Harp, with Other Figures in a Mountainous Landscape with a River and Lake in a Distant Valley c.1799–1800 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 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-bard-playing-a-harp-with-other-figures-in-a-mountainous-r1180043, accessed 17 July 2024.