Found in Turner's Studio: Landscape and Figures

after Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Temptation on the Pinnacle, engraved by F. Bacon  published 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Temptation on the Pinnacle  c.1834

In addition to three designs for 'Paradise Lost' (see no.54), Turner contributed two episodes from 'Paradise Regained' for Macrone's 1835 edition of Milton's 'Poetical Works'. This vignette shows the third and final temptation endured by Christ in the wilderness, when challenged by Satan to throw himself down from the highest pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem. Turner depicts the moment of Christ's triumph over Satan who can be seen hurling himself away from the scene in anger and frustration. This new acquisition fills an important gap in the Gallery's representation of the later period of Turner's involvement in book illustration.

Gallery label, February 1992

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Keswick Lake, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’  c.1830–2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sketches and Inscriptions in a Copy of Rogers’s ‘Poems’  c.1830–2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’; Sky for ‘The Nile’  c.1837–8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for ‘A Tempest’, Rogers’s ‘Poems’  c.1830–2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Loch Lomond, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’  c.1830–2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, St Julienne’s Chapel, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’  c.1830–2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Cod on the Beach  c.1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, St Pierre’s Cottage, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’  c.1830–2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Château Gaillard from the South (Vignette)  c.1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Perugia, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’  c.1826–7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Wreck Buoy, Gurnet, Dogfish, and Plaice  c.1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Mackerel on a Beach  c.1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Vignette of A Tempest - Voyage of Columbus  1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Vignette of A Tempest - Voyage of Columbus  1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sunset: A Fish Market on the Beach  c.1835

after Joseph Mallord William Turner, Camp Hill, Hastings, engraved by Edward Goodall  c.1836

A poet himself, albeit of somewhat dubious talent, Turner responded well to commissions for illustrations of verse, such as the poetical works of Thomas Campbell. In this small vignette Turner portrays Camp Hill near Hastings, on the night before the famous battle in 1066. This early proof bears Turner's (almost illegible) handwritten pencil notes instructing the engraver Edward Goodall. Turner warns that the foreground shadows are too strong and he indicates that the rays of the moon should become more pointed and starlike.

Gallery label, September 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Study for Unidentified Vignettes: Lobsters on the Beach  c.1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study; Sea and Sun  c.1826–36

During the 1830s Turner collaborated with the poet Samuel Rogers to provide illustrations for a volume of poems, a number of which had nautical themes. The designs, such as Tornaro, were highly finished and detailed watercolours in vignette form (small-scale images with no defined border). Nevertheless the emphasis on the effects of colour and light on the sea and sky owe much to Turner’s experimental, loose studies.

Gallery label, April 2005

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for ‘The Expulsion from Paradise’, for Milton’s ‘Poetical Works’  c.1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study of a Temple, with Rainbow, possibly for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’  c.1835–8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’; Alciphron’s Swoon  c.1837

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vignette Study for Moore’s ‘The Epicurean’; Descent into the Well  c.1837–8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bay of Naples, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’  c.1826–7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Hannibal Passing the Alps, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’  c.1826–7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Forum, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’  c.1826–7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, A Villa. Moon-Light (A Villa on the Night of a Festa di Ballo), for Rogers’s ‘Italy’  c.1826–7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Tivoli, for Rogers’s ‘Italy’  c.1826–7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Tornaro, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’  c.1830–2

Turner’s watercolour for Tornaro was sensitively translated into black lines and engraved on steel by Robert Wallis. The engraving accompanied the following lines:

‘The shepherd on Tornaro’s misty brow,

And the swart seamen, sailing far below,

Not undelighted watch the morning ray

Purpling the orient - till it breaks away,

And burns and blazes into glorious day!’

John Ruskin described the prints in Rogers’s Poems as ‘the loveliest engravings ever produced by the pure line’.

Gallery label, July 2008