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

Eric Shanes has proposed this radiant ‘colour beginning’ as a study for Turner’s watercolour of The Tower of London of about 1825 (private collection),1 engraved in 1831 for The Literary Souvenir (Tate impression: T06137);2 see under Tate D17819
(Turner Bequest CCIV 34) in the River sketchbook of about 1823–4 for details of the design. However, there is no indication of the White Tower, the focus of that composition, high above the riverside ranges of turrets and roofs, nor of the busy array of shipping on the Thames in the foreground, although such absences do not necessarily preclude a connection, as many of the less developed compositions in the ‘England and Wales Colour Studies c.1825–39’ section of this catalogue demonstrate.

The darkest ochre strokes to the left of centre and the associated reflection suggest a prominent feature, which would equate to the cylindrical forms of the Byward Tower in the finished watercolour. However, so loose is the basic arrangement of sunlit architecture beyond water in the present study that it might just as well relate to the watercolour Hampton Court Palace of about 1827 (private collection),3 engraved in 1829 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impression: T04550); see under Tate D20736 (Turner Bequest CCXXVII 2a) in the Isle of Wight sketchbook, in use in 1827.

If Hampton Court is the subject, the same darker forms would indicate the castellated red-brick banqueting house in the gardens overlooking the Thames, with the paler area to the right representing the regular Baroque front of the palace, and vertical strokes standing for reeds in the shallows.

Compare the equally slight Tate D25269 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 147) in the present section.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII – 373’ top right, ascending vertically.