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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > European River and Lowland Scenes > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Houses at the Top of a Gorge c.1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Houses at the Top of a Gorge’ c.1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Houses at the Top of a Gorge c.1830
D40120
Chalk and pencil on blue wove paper, 188 x 276 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the centre is a vertiginous drop into a rocky gorge, the great depth of which is conveyed by the unusually high line of the horizon. A group of trees stands on the plateau at the edge of the precipice to the left, while to the right, on the other side of the gorge, are a number of houses with pitched roofs and chimneys. These houses are partially obscured by the foliage of trees closer to the foreground, under which two figures appear to be sitting, their forms highlighted in chalk.
This is the verso of Tate D25122 (Turner Bequest CCLXII 22), which is not listed in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.1 For the grouping and dating of these works, see the section Introduction.

Ben Pollitt
August 2019

1
See A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.814.

How to cite

Ben Pollitt, ‘Houses at the Top of a Gorge c.1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-houses-at-the-top-of-a-gorge-r1202188, accessed 21 November 2024.