Oil paint on mahogany veneer mounted onto cedar panel
Surrey
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Guildford Banks Wey
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
architecture
bank
castle
church
England
England, South East
England, Southern
Guildford, Guildford Castle
Guildford, Holy Trinity Church
landscape
military
places
religious
river
River Wey
Surrey
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
water: inland
wooded
<p>In 1805, Turner took a holiday exploring the Thames, and its tributary the Wey, by boat. The tour produced an outstanding body of oils painted directly from nature, some painted aboard his boat. Besides larger studies on canvas, of which two are shown in this room, he made a series of very freely handled sketches on mahogany panel. Like this distant view of Guildford Castle, they are often painted on a wide, shallow format from a low viewpoint, focusing mainly on trees and sky.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint mahogany veneer mounted onto cedar panel
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-04
Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2004-09-04
Turner and Constable and their European Contemporaries
Loan-out
22 July 2013 – 28 June 2014
2014-06-28
22 July 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-07-22
Compton Verney (Compton Verney, UK)
5 October 2013 – 5 January 2014
2014-01-05
2013-10-05
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
1 March 2014 – 28 June 2014
2014-06-28
2014-03-01
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2013-07-22
Capturing British Landscape in the age of Turner and Constable
Loan-out
13 November 2017 – 4 March 2018
2018-03-04
13 November 2017 – 4 March 2018
2018-03-04
2017-11-13
The Lightbox (Woking, UK)
http://www.thelightbox.org/
2017-11-13
Pastoral Elegance: Turner in Surrey
Loan-out
20 February 2021 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
20 February 2021 – 31 May 2021
2021-05-31
2021-02-20
Mitsubishi Ichigokan (Tokyo, Japan)
1 July 2022 – 9 October 2022
2022-10-09
2022-07-01
Villa Vauban (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg)
24 October 2022 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
2022-10-24
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
2021-02-20
Constable and England: A History of His Affections
Tate partnerships & programmes
Guildford from the Banks of the Wey
support: 254 × 197 mm
frame: 349 × 292 × 38 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>In 1805, Turner took a holiday exploring the Thames, and its tributary the Wey, by boat. The tour produced an outstanding body of oils painted directly from nature, some  painted aboard his boat. Besides larger studies on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, of which two are shown in this room, he made a series of very freely handled sketches on mahogany <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a>. Like this distant view of Guildford Castle, they are often painted on a wide, shallow format from a low viewpoint, focusing mainly on trees and sky.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Nos. 177–94: Small Thames Sketches <i>c.</i> 1807</b>
<br/>
<br/>THESE eighteen sketches of various sizes, painted on mahogany veneer, are all from the Turner Bequest. They were included in the 1854 Schedule as Nos. 184 to 200*, ‘18 fragments various sizes on Veneers—or thin <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panels</span></a>’; in the 1856 Schedule no. 200* [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-cattle-in-a-stream-under-a-bridge-n05534" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05534</span></a>], was inadvertently omitted. They were first numbered, laid down on panels, cleaned and exhibited in 1908 and 1910.
<br/>
<br/>The identifiable subjects of these sketches are all on the Thames or its tributary the Wey; several of the Guildford and Godalming views were identified in 1970 by Christopher Pinsent, including No. 186 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-tree-tops-and-sky-guildford-castle-evening-n02309" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02309</span></a>], formerly thought to show Windsor Castle. The same area, with the exception of Walton Bridges, is covered by <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> in the ‘Windsor, Eton’ sketchbook and the ‘Wey, Guildford’ sketchbook (XCVII and XCVIII).
<br/>
<br/>The small Thames sketches on panel, like these two sketchbooks, were dated <i>c.</i> 1807 by Finberg (1909, i, pp. 251, 253, and 1961, p. 137), a date that still seems most probable. However, in 1969 Gage divided the sketches into three groups and dated them all later. His first group, Nos. 179–80 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-windsor-castle-from-the-meadows-n02308" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02308</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-windsor-castle-from-the-river-n02306" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02306</span></a>], 183 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-thames-near-windsor-n02305" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02305</span></a>], 187–92 and 194 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sunset-on-the-river-n02311" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02311</span></a>], he associates with the ‘Wey, Guildford’ sketchbook but dates <i>c.</i>
1809–10. His second group, Nos. 184 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-thames-near-walton-bridges-n02680" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02680</span></a>] and 185 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-walton-reach-n02681" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02681</span></a>], he dates <i>c.</i> 1811–12. His third group comprises Nos. 177 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-windsor-castle-from-salt-hill-n02312" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02312</span></a>], 178 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-windsor-from-lower-hope-n02678" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02678</span></a>], 181 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-eton-from-the-river-n02313" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02313</span></a>], 182 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-ford-n02679" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02679</span></a>] and 186 [<span>N02309</span>] and is dated by him to <i>c.</i> 1813 or even later, on account of a supposed similarity to the foliage of <i>Crossing the Brook</i>, exhibited in 1815 (No. 130 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-crossing-the-brook-n00497" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00497</span></a>]), and a greater accomplishment than the small oil sketches on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> of Devonshire subjects done in 1813 (Nos. 213–25). The Devonshire sketches, however, are not strictly comparable in either technique or general approach, and again it seems more likely that, as is argued in the case of the large Thames sketches on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> (Nos. 160–176), the whole group represents a single campaign playing a crucial part in the rapid development of Turner's approach to nature in the exhibited pictures of 1807 and 1808. Indeed, in 1983 (exh. cat., Paris 1983–4, pp. 78–9 no. 20), Gage dated No. 186 to <i>c.</i> 1807 and conceded that Turner seemed to have ceased <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> the small Thames sketches on mahogany veneer by about 1811.
<br/>
<br/>These sketches were probably done out-of-doors, perhaps from a small boat as the younger Trimmer described, even though he talks of Turner using ‘a large canvas’ (see p. 116). In them Turner approaches nearest to what Constable termed ‘a natural painter’, but, unlike Constable, Turner always seems to have been interested in making a complete pictorial <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> even when he came closest to recording a direct experience of nature.
<br/></p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> MacColl 1920, pp. 36–8; Clark 1949, pp. 98–9; Finberg 1961, pp. 136–7; Herrmann 1963, p. 12; Kitson 1964, p. 77; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 23–4; Gage 1965, p. 75 n. 2; Gage 1969, p. 38; Reynolds 1969, p. 71; Ziff 1971, p. 125; Herrmann 1975, pp. 16–19, 228; Wilton 1979, pp. 111–18; Ziff 1980, p. 169; Youngblood 1982, pp. 21, 34 nn. 9 and 23; Gage in exh. cat., Paris 1983–4, pp. 78–9.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>188. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-guildford-from-the-banks-of-the-wey-n02310" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02310</span></a>]<b> Guildford from the Banks of the Wey</b> <i>c.</i>
1807
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2310)
<br/>Mahogany veneer, 10 × 7 3/4 (25 × 20); the painting has been restored on a tapering strip stretching about 6 (15) down the right-hand side, about  3/4 (2) wide at the top. </p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (one of 184–200*); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Whitechapel 1953 (74); R.A. 1974–5 (135).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 189 n. 19; Gage 1969, p. 38.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The view has been identified by Christopher Pinsent, in letters of 1 January and 2 March 1970, as showing Guildford Castle and the eighteenth-century brick tower of Trinity church from the banks of the Wey near St Catherine's Chapel; there are chalk quarries on the right. There are related <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> drawings in the ‘Wey, Guildford’ sketchbook (XCVIII-111 <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a>, 112 verso and 113 verso).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture bank castle church England England, South East England, Southern Guildford, Guildford Castle Guildford, Holy Trinity Church landscape military places religious river River Wey Surrey townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features water: inland wooded