Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
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>
A River Seen a Hill
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
architecture
bank
bridge
bridges and viaducts
mist
river
water: inland
weather
<p>This is one of a series of square-shaped canvases that Turner painted in the 1840s. It remains unfinished. Late in his career Turner took to finishing paintings in front of his fellow artists in the days before an exhibition opening. One observer noted that such half-finished works were ‘divided into large masses of blue, where the water or sky was to come, [with] other portions laid out in broad orange yellow, falling into delicate brown where the trees and landscapes were to be placed.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
28 July 2010 – 3 September 2010
2010-09-03
28 July 2010 – 3 September 2010
2010-09-03
2010-07-28
Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Merthyr Tydfil, UK)
2010-07-28
Centenary Exhibition
Loan-out
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
6 July 2019 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
6 July 2019 – 13 October 2019
2019-10-13
2019-07-06
Kunstmuseum (Luzern, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
8 November 2019 – 26 January 2020
2020-01-26
2019-11-08
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
20 February 2020 – 7 September 2020
2020-09-07
2020-02-20
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
15 October 2020 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
2020-10-15
Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Québec, Canada)
http://www.mnba.qc.ca
2019-07-06
The Sea and the Alps: Turner's Quest for the Sublime
Tate partnerships & programmes
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 105
Collection based display
A River Seen from a Hill
support: 787 × 794 mm
frame: 950 × 950 × 125 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
<div class="text">
<p>This is one of a series of square-shaped canvases that Turner painted in the 1840s. It remains unfinished. Late in his career Turner took to finishing paintings in front of his fellow artists in the days before an exhibition opening. One observer noted that such half-finished works were ‘divided into large masses of blue, where the water or sky was to come, [with] other portions laid out in broad orange yellow, falling into delicate brown where the trees and landscapes were to be placed.’</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>532. </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-a-river-seen-from-a-hill-n05475" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05475</span></a>]<b> A River Seen from a Hill</b> <i>c.</i>
1840–5</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5475)</p>
<p>Canvas, 31 × 31 3/4 (79 × 79·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (157, one of 2 each 2'7 3/4" ×2'7" with No. 504); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Arts Council tour 1952 (22); Athens 1980 (76, repr. in colour).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, pp. 157, 188; Herrmann 1978, p. 773; Wallace 1979, p. 109, pl. 1; Butlin 1981, p. 45.</p>
<p>An oil beginning, square in shape and probably done in the early 1840s when Turner was experimenting with such formats; <i>c.f.</i> especially No. 504 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-venetian-scene-n05482" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05482</span></a>]. 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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> bears the form of Thomas Brown's stamp that seems to have come into use in about 1839. The scene, with a bridge and twin poplars, may be Italian but is not necessarily so.</p>
<p>The original paint has been lost all down the left-hand edge.</p>
<p><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
architecture bank bridge bridges and viaducts mist river water: inland weather