Oil paint on canvas
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>
River Scene with Cattle
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
animals: mammals
bank
boat, sailing
cloud
cow
figure
people
river
society
transport: water
water: inland
weather
<p>From its relatively advanced state, this large river scene appears to be an unfinished picture. In order for the painting to be acceptable for exhibition or sale at this stage of his career, Turner would have added a little more detail or narrative, and made the features already present crisper. He may have concluded that the size was too large for the subject matter and abandoned the picture for this reason.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2012-04-14
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-14
Turner as a British Artist
Collection based display
3 October 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
3 October 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-10-03
Dordrechts Museum (Dordrecht, Netherlands)
2021-10-03
In the light of Cuyp, Aelbert Cuyp & Gainsborough, Constable, Turner
Loan-out
River Scene with Cattle
support: 1283 × 1740 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
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<p>From its relatively advanced state, this large river scene appears to be an unfinished picture. In order for the painting to be acceptable for exhibition or sale at this stage of his career, Turner would have added a little more detail or narrative, and made the features already present crisper. He may have concluded that the size was too large for the subject matter and abandoned the picture for this reason.</p>
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Display caption
2016-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>84. </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-river-scene-with-cattle-n01857" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01857</span></a>]<b> River Scene with Cattle</b> Exh. 1809?
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (1857)
<br/>Canvas, 50 7/8 × 68 1/8 (128·5 × 174)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner's Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> ?Turner's gallery 1809 (2, as ‘Sketch of Cows, &amp;c.’); Tate Gallery 1931 (36).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Armstrong 1902, p. 228; MacColl 1920, p. 28; Gage 1965, p. 79 n. 35.</p>
<p></p>
<p>For an alternative candidate for the work exhibited by Turner in 1809 see No. 83 [<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-quiet-ruin-cattle-in-water-a-sketch-evening-n00487" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00487</span></a>]; the fact that the latter, rather than this work, was included in the batch of works to be given numbers immediately they were aquired by the National Gallery makes it marginally the more likely to have been the exhibited picture. The fact that this <i>River Scene</i> is rather more of a finished picture than the other paradoxically supports the claims of the other to have been exhibited as a ‘Sketch’.
<br/>
<br/>The picture is based on sketches in the ‘Tabley No. 2’ sketchbook, probably of 1808 (the closest is CIV-47 <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>; there are variations on pages 46 verso and 47 (in which the shipping is closer to the final <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>), and 48 verso and 49). These follow a series of river scenes identified by Finberg (1909, p. 273) as showing the Dee in North Wales, which may therefore also be the scene of this painting.</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 animals: mammals bank boat, sailing cloud cow figure people river society transport: water water: inland weather