Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
attributed to <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>
Landscape with Windmill and Rainbow partly after Gainsborough
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
animals: mammals
architecture
cow
fine art and design, named works
Gainsborough, Thomas, paintings
hill
industrial
landscape
natural phenomena
objects
rainbow
windmill
wooded
painting oil paint canvas
Landscape with Windmill and Rainbow (partly after Gainsborough)
support: 705 × 902 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><b>45.</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-landscape-with-windmill-and-rainbow-partly-after-gainsborough-n05489" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05489</span></a>]<b> Landscape with Windmill and Rainbow</b> <i>c.</i>
1795–1800
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5489)
<br/>Canvas, 27 3/4 × 35 1/2 (70·5 × 90)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (?); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, pp. 168–9; Gage 1980, p. 290; John Hayes, <i>The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough</i>, 1982, ii, p. 341, the Gainsborough repr. no. 15.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Martin Davies, who accepted this picture as being by Turner with reservations, added that, although there was now no chalk number on the back to link it with the Schedule of the Turner Bequest, ‘there can be little doubt that this picture forms part of the Turner Bequest, and was accepted by Eastlake and Knight [who drew up the Schedule] as being an early work’. The central part of the picture is based on a Gainsborough, now lost but known from an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> and an old sale catalogue reproduction (Ellis Waterhouse, <i>Gainsborough</i> 1958, p. 108 no. 846, as repr. Robert Cluett sale, New York, 26 May 1932, lot 90); the Gainsborough lacks the windmill and the rainbow. It looks therefore as if Turner may have begun this work as a straight copy but developed 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> in accord with his own taste: the rainbow in particular would seem to reflect his especial interests. That Turner was interested in Gainsborough's work is shown by his copy of the older artist's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etching</span></a> of a ‘Wooded Landscape with Church, Cow and Figure’ in the sketchbook now at Princeton University Art Museum inscribed ‘The Sketch Book—/of J.M.W. Turner—London/as it was left at—/M<sup>r</sup>. Narraways— Bristol/about 1790 or 1791 —’ (exh. R.A. 1974–5 (B8); see John Hayes, <i>Gainsborough as <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/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>Printmaker</span></a></i> 1971, p. 35, the Gainsborough repr. pl. 30, the Turner pl. 32); here the original composition is again modified, though less drastically. In addition, Turner's friend the Rev. Henry Trimmer owned <i>A Landscape, with Cattle, in the manner of Gainsborough</i> attributed to Turner and said to have been given to him by the artist (see Gage <i>loc. cit.</i>). (The compiler is indebted to Dr John Hayes for advice on this entry.)</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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
animals: mammals architecture cow fine art and design, named works Gainsborough, Thomas, paintings hill industrial landscape natural phenomena objects rainbow windmill wooded