Oil paint on mahogany veneer
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>
Thames near Walton Bridges
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
bank
boat, sailing
bridge
bridges and viaducts
cloud
England
England, South East
England, Southern
figure
house
landscape
people
places
residential
river
River Thames
society
Surrey
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
Walton-on-Thames
water: inland
weather
wooded
<p>While living for part of the time at Isleworth, Turner made many excursions along the river, drawing, painting and fishing – his favourite hobby. He kept a boat, and often stopped overnight at various landing-places. He also painted on board, as here on small wood panels and sometimes, more ambitiously, on canvas.</p><p>Painting in oils in the open air, direct from the subject, was becoming popular in the early nineteenth century, in response to a growing feeling for naturalism. Turner’s oil sketches of the Thames painted around 1805 show him at the forefront of the trend.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint mahogany veneer
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
2001-06-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-06-18
From Studio to Gallery: Sketches in the Turner Bequest
Collection based display
7 November 2003 – 8 February 2004
2004-02-08
7 November 2003 – 8 February 2004
2004-02-08
2003-11-07
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.bmag.org.uk
2003-11-07
Turner's Britain
Loan-out
10 April 2006 – 12 March 2007
2007-03-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-10
Impressions and Ideas Turner's Oil Sketches and Studies
Collection based display
1 October 2007 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
1 October 2007 – 6 January 2008
2008-01-06
2007-10-01
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
23 June 2008 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
2008-06-23
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2007-10-01
JMW Turner
Tate partnerships & programmes
12 August 2009 – 26 July 2010
2010-07-26
12 August 2009 – 26 July 2010
2010-07-26
2009-08-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-12
Turner on the Thames
Collection based display
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
21 March 2018 – 10 January 2021
2021-01-10
21 March 2018 – 26 August 2018
2018-08-26
2018-03-21
Chiostro del Bramante (Rome, Italy)
http://www.chiostrodelbramante.it/
2018-03-21
Turner Watercolours
Tate partnerships & programmes
11 September 2019 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
11 September 2019 – 16 February 2020
2020-02-16
2019-09-11
Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France)
29 February 2020 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
2020-02-29
External
2019-09-11
Gainsborough to Turner: The Golden Age of English Painting
Loan-out
19 October 2024 – 23 February 2025
2025-02-23
19 October 2024 – 23 February 2025
2025-02-23
2024-10-19
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
2024-10-19
Bridging time: JMW Turner, landscape, and a changing world
Loan-out
The Thames near Walton Bridges
support: 371 × 737 mm
frame: 555 × 916 × 72 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>While living for part of the time at Isleworth, Turner made many excursions along the river, drawing, painting and fishing – his favourite hobby.  He kept a boat, and often stopped overnight at various landing-places.  He also painted on board, as here on small wood panels and sometimes, more ambitiously, on canvas.
<br/>
<br/>Painting in oils in the open air, direct from the subject, was becoming popular in the early nineteenth century, in response to a growing feeling for naturalism.  Turner’s oil sketches of the Thames painted around 1805 show him at the forefront of the trend.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
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>184. </b>[<span>N02680</span>]<b> The Thames near Walton Bridges</b> <i>c.</i>
1807
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2680)
<br/>Mahogany veneer, 14 5/8 × 29 (37 × 73·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (one of 184–200*); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1956, returned to the National Gallery 1961, and to the Tate Gallery 1962.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Amsterdam (repr.), Berne (repr.), Paris, Brussels (repr.), Liege (repr.) (10), Venice and Rome (11) 1947–8; Lisbon 1973 (2, repr. in colour); R.A. 1974–5 (138, repr.); Cambridge and R.A. 1980–1 (51, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, pp. 155, 189 n. 19; Clark 1949, pp. 98–9, pl. 84b; Clare 1951, p. 42, repr. p. 44; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 23, pl. 35; Gage 1969, p. 38; Reynolds 1969, p. 74, colour pl. 57; Gaunt 1971, p. 5, colour pl. 6; Herrmann 1975, pp. 16, 19, 228, colour pl. 33.</p>
<p></p>
<p>John Gage isolates this sketch and the next (No. 185 [<span>N02681</span>]) from the other small Thames sketches on account of technique (thin paint directly over the mahogany veneer, without a ground) and subject, and dates them <i>c.</i>
1811–12; but see p. 120. The two finished paintings of Walton Bridges (Nos. 60 and 63), which were probably exhibited in Turner's gallery in 1806 and 1807 respectively, are not related in composition to the sketches and therefore do not help in dating the latter.
<br/>
<br/>Conal Shields (as reported in exh. cat., Tate Gallery 1973–4, p. 88) tentatively suggests that the peculiar character of these two paintings derives from the use of the <i>camera lucida</i> patented by W.H. Wollaston in 1807: ‘Turner has none of his usual difficulty with the <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/proportion" title="Glossary definition for 'Proportion'"><span>proportions</span></a> of things, with <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/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a>, but goes directly to the notation of colour and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tonal</span></a> relationships’.</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
adults architecture bank boat, sailing bridge bridges and viaducts cloud England England, South East England, Southern figure house landscape people places residential river River Thames society Surrey transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features Walton-on-Thames water: inland weather wooded