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TURNER’S Sketchbooks
W
hen T1rner died in Decem4er 1851 only a fraction of his life’s work had been seen by his contemporaries. Piled up in boxes in his studio, and running along several shelves above the stacks of unsold or unfinished canvases, were around three hundred sketchbooks charting his life and his travels during the previous sixty-two years. The contents of these books amounted to thousands of pages of sketches, generally in pencil, but occasionally worked with bursts of extravagant colour. Turner had jealously sought to maintain a mystery about his creative processes, so hardly anyone had been permitted to look inside these books during his lifetime. This is the first time that such a rich selection of sketches has appeared in one volume.
TURNER’S Sketchbooks
an warrell is an independent curator, specialising in British art of the nineteenth century. He worked at Tate for over twentyfive years, curating exhibitions about many aspects of the work of J.M.W. Turner. He is the author of Turner’s Secret Sketches.
‘The Turner Sketch-Books are as valuable,
in their way, as, say, a discovery of diaries by Shakespeare ’ charles lewis hind
T
urner’s sketchbooks ofer perhaps the most appealing introduction to the artist. More than three hundred survive intact, mostly in the artist’s own bequest at Tate Britain. They permit us to look over Turner’s shoulder, and to witness the origins and development of ideas that can be traced through to his major paintings. All aspects of Turner’s life and art can be found on the pages of these notebooks, which range in size from small pocket books, used for the most personal notes, to cumbersome albums containing presentation sketches. Wherever he went on his exhaustive travels in Britain and Europe, Turner was never without a sketchbook. This book is the first to survey the full range of Turner’s sketchbooks, illustrating pages selected from over a hundred, beginning with his teenage eforts and culminating in the atmospheric colour studies of his last years, charting his final travels in Venice, Switzerland and northern France. In addition to those at Tate, the few books preserved in other museum collections are also featured, including the ‘Channel’ sketchbook of 1845, now at the Yale Center for British Art, which only resurfaced on the art market in 1986.
IAN WARRELL
UK £24.99 US $45.00 CAN $50.00 ISBN 978-1-84976-295-3
IAN WARRELL
TATE039_P0271EDTurnerSketchbooksNew.indd 1
14/08/2014 15:46
1790–1799
1790–1799
Princeton sketchbook, 1790–1
Bristol and Malmesbury sketchbook, 1791
Average page size 13.7 × 17.7 Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Charles J. Mosmann: 57–1
A Labourer harnessing a Team of Four, after Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg’s A Cottage in Patterdale f.75
An échorché male torso, after Vesalius f.26
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Pencil, with watercolour and pen and ink on paper Average page size 18.5 × 26.5 TB VI
T
he Princeton sketchbook is one of the few outside the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain. Uncharacteristically, or possibly unintentionally, Turner left the book with his hosts, the Narraways, at the end of his stay with them in Bristol. In addition to some views around Isleworth and Kingston upon Thames, several of its pages are taken up with copies of engravings based on images by admired artists, such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Thomas Gainsborough and Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (whose Cottage in Patterdale 1783 is now in the Government Art Collection). Other pages reveal Turner’s application to the study of the human figure. This was still the focus of his training at the Royal Academy Schools, which he had entered in 1789, aged just fourteen.
View from Cook’s Folly, looking up the River Avon f.24
T
urner probably used the small Princeton sketchbook in conjunction with this larger volume when visiting his father’s friend, John Narraway, in September 1791. The wider span of the Bristol and Malmesbury book permitted him to encompass spectacular views of the landscape bordering the Avon gorge, before it meets the Severn. His delight in fearlessly exploring this setting led the Narraways to nickname him ‘The Prince of the Rocks’. Already business-minded, Turner envisaged creating a set of twelve views for publication. His vantage point here surveys the cliffs upstream from Cook’s Folly, near Durdham Down, towards the site of the later Clifton Suspension Bridge. Turner also painted a view looking back to the castellated folly from further up the river on a sheet that is likely to have originally been part of this sketchbook (Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum).
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Princeton sketchbook, 1790–1
Bristol and Malmesbury sketchbook, 1791
Average page size 13.7 × 17.7 Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Charles J. Mosmann: 57–1
A Labourer harnessing a Team of Four, after Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg’s A Cottage in Patterdale f.75
An échorché male torso, after Vesalius f.26
20
Pencil, with watercolour and pen and ink on paper Average page size 18.5 × 26.5 TB VI
T
he Princeton sketchbook is one of the few outside the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain. Uncharacteristically, or possibly unintentionally, Turner left the book with his hosts, the Narraways, at the end of his stay with them in Bristol. In addition to some views around Isleworth and Kingston upon Thames, several of its pages are taken up with copies of engravings based on images by admired artists, such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Thomas Gainsborough and Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (whose Cottage in Patterdale 1783 is now in the Government Art Collection). Other pages reveal Turner’s application to the study of the human figure. This was still the focus of his training at the Royal Academy Schools, which he had entered in 1789, aged just fourteen.
View from Cook’s Folly, looking up the River Avon f.24
T
urner probably used the small Princeton sketchbook in conjunction with this larger volume when visiting his father’s friend, John Narraway, in September 1791. The wider span of the Bristol and Malmesbury book permitted him to encompass spectacular views of the landscape bordering the Avon gorge, before it meets the Severn. His delight in fearlessly exploring this setting led the Narraways to nickname him ‘The Prince of the Rocks’. Already business-minded, Turner envisaged creating a set of twelve views for publication. His vantage point here surveys the cliffs upstream from Cook’s Folly, near Durdham Down, towards the site of the later Clifton Suspension Bridge. Turner also painted a view looking back to the castellated folly from further up the river on a sheet that is likely to have originally been part of this sketchbook (Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum).
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Marford Mill sketchbook, 1794
‘Matlock, Northampton, First Tour’ sketchbook, 1794
Pencil on paper Average page size 15.2 × 9.9 TB XX
Pencil on paper Average page size 11.1 × 18.1 TB XIX
Stalls at a Fair, with Banners
D
f.11
Figures at a Fairground Stall f.16
uring the summer of 1794 Turner undertook an extended tour of the cathedral cities and market towns of the Midlands and north Wales. His specific aim was to collect material that could be developed either as future exhibits at the Royal Academy, or for publications such as the Copper-Plate Magazine. As well as recording his impressions in these two sketchbooks, he made use of loose sheets of paper for more detailed studies, especially of gothic architecture. His visit to Wolverhampton coincided with the annual fair. When he subsequently developed a watercolour of the event, for the 1796 exhibition (now at Wolverhampton Art Gallery), he was able to draw on the incisive notes he had made of the stalls, the performers and the holiday crowd.
Wolverhampton: the Parish Church of St Peter and Houses in High Green, with Market Stalls f.21
The Eleanor Cross at Hardingstone, Northampton f.37a
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Marford Mill sketchbook, 1794
‘Matlock, Northampton, First Tour’ sketchbook, 1794
Pencil on paper Average page size 15.2 × 9.9 TB XX
Pencil on paper Average page size 11.1 × 18.1 TB XIX
Stalls at a Fair, with Banners
D
f.11
Figures at a Fairground Stall f.16
uring the summer of 1794 Turner undertook an extended tour of the cathedral cities and market towns of the Midlands and north Wales. His specific aim was to collect material that could be developed either as future exhibits at the Royal Academy, or for publications such as the Copper-Plate Magazine. As well as recording his impressions in these two sketchbooks, he made use of loose sheets of paper for more detailed studies, especially of gothic architecture. His visit to Wolverhampton coincided with the annual fair. When he subsequently developed a watercolour of the event, for the 1796 exhibition (now at Wolverhampton Art Gallery), he was able to draw on the incisive notes he had made of the stalls, the performers and the holiday crowd.
Wolverhampton: the Parish Church of St Peter and Houses in High Green, with Market Stalls f.21
The Eleanor Cross at Hardingstone, Northampton f.37a
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‘South Wales’ sketchbook, 1795 Average page size 26.4 × 20.3 TB XXVI
Kidwelly: the Castle seen from the Opposite Bank of the River Gwendraeth f.16
Gloucester: Westgate Bridge f.65
The Waterfall at Mellincourt, Vale of Neath f.8
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T
urner’s first excursion into Wales took place in 1792, when he followed the course of the River Wye. Three years later he toured the southern coast, passing through Cardiff, Aberdulais, Swansea, Tenby, Pembroke, eventually reaching St David’s, from where he returned by the inland route to Brecon, Abergavenny and then Hereford. Once again his sketches were primarily devoted to picturesque motifs, such as bridges, castles, abbeys and cathedrals. But he was also inspired by the rocky coast to attempt some colour studies directly from nature. One of these he finished and afterwards detached from the book, adding a washline mount. It was probably used as a means of demonstrating to clients (whose orders are listed in the book) how the sketches might look when fully developed.
St David’s Head from Porthsallie Bay With Turner’s washline mount f.29
North Shore, Tenby, Goscar Rock and First Point f.22
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‘South Wales’ sketchbook, 1795 Average page size 26.4 × 20.3 TB XXVI
Kidwelly: the Castle seen from the Opposite Bank of the River Gwendraeth f.16
Gloucester: Westgate Bridge f.65
The Waterfall at Mellincourt, Vale of Neath f.8
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T
urner’s first excursion into Wales took place in 1792, when he followed the course of the River Wye. Three years later he toured the southern coast, passing through Cardiff, Aberdulais, Swansea, Tenby, Pembroke, eventually reaching St David’s, from where he returned by the inland route to Brecon, Abergavenny and then Hereford. Once again his sketches were primarily devoted to picturesque motifs, such as bridges, castles, abbeys and cathedrals. But he was also inspired by the rocky coast to attempt some colour studies directly from nature. One of these he finished and afterwards detached from the book, adding a washline mount. It was probably used as a means of demonstrating to clients (whose orders are listed in the book) how the sketches might look when fully developed.
St David’s Head from Porthsallie Bay With Turner’s washline mount f.29
North Shore, Tenby, Goscar Rock and First Point f.22
25
‘Isle of Wight’ sketchbook, 1795 Average page size 26.4 × 20.4 TB XXIV
S
hortly after his Welsh tour, Turner resumed his travels, heading to the Isle of Wight. He took a sketchbook of almost exactly the same dimensions as that used in Wales, but made up of a different paper type. At this date he was still sampling materials to test which worked best for him. During his time on the island, his route encompassed all the sights that had any potential historical or visual interest, perhaps motivated by the possibility of a collaboration with engraver John Landseer on a set of published views. However, as in Wales, it was in his depictions of the sea and the shore that Turner gave full rein to his powers, anticipating some of the effects that he introduced in Fishermen at Sea, his first exhibited oil painting (1796, Tate).
Bembridge Mill, with a View towards Brading Haven f.49
Alum Bay f.41
Carisbrooke Castle: the Gateway f.25a
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‘Isle of Wight’ sketchbook, 1795 Average page size 26.4 × 20.4 TB XXIV
S
hortly after his Welsh tour, Turner resumed his travels, heading to the Isle of Wight. He took a sketchbook of almost exactly the same dimensions as that used in Wales, but made up of a different paper type. At this date he was still sampling materials to test which worked best for him. During his time on the island, his route encompassed all the sights that had any potential historical or visual interest, perhaps motivated by the possibility of a collaboration with engraver John Landseer on a set of published views. However, as in Wales, it was in his depictions of the sea and the shore that Turner gave full rein to his powers, anticipating some of the effects that he introduced in Fishermen at Sea, his first exhibited oil painting (1796, Tate).
Bembridge Mill, with a View towards Brading Haven f.49
Alum Bay f.41
Carisbrooke Castle: the Gateway f.25a
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