Oil paint on mahogany veneer
Surrey
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on loan
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>
Tree Tops and Sky Guildford Castle Evening
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
architecture
castle
cloud
England
England, South East
England, Southern
Guildford, Guildford Castle
landscape
military
places
sky
Surrey
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
weather
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
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
6 October 2007 – 13 January 2008
2008-01-13
6 October 2007 – 13 January 2008
2008-01-13
2007-10-06
Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Ghent, Belgium)
http://www.gent.be/
2007-10-06
British Vision, Observation and Imagination in British Art, 1750 -1950
Loan-out
28 April 2012 – 10 July 2016
2016-07-10
28 April 2012
2012-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-28
In The Studio
Collection based display
16 April 2013 – 30 June 2013
2013-06-30
16 April 2013
2013-04-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-04-16
Elements of Nature
Collection based display
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
2023-10-28
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
2023-10-28
Turner at Lenbachhaus Munich
Loan-out
6 July 2024 – 15 January 2028
2028-01-15
6 July 2024 – 1 September 2024
2024-09-01
2024-07-06
Grimaldi Forum (Monaco, Monaco)
30 September 2024 – 7 May 2025
2025-05-07
2024-09-30
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
21 June 2025 – 5 October 2025
2025-10-05
2025-06-21
Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia)
1 June 2026 – 1 October 2026
2026-10-01
2026-06-01
External
15 November 2026 – 15 March 2027
2027-03-15
2026-11-15
External
1 May 2027 – 1 September 2027
2027-09-01
2027-05-01
External
15 October 2027 – 15 January 2028
2028-01-15
2027-10-15
External
2024-07-06
Turner's Sublime Legacy
Tate partnerships & programmes
Tree Tops and Sky, Guildford Castle(?), Evening
support: 276 × 737 mm
frame: 445 × 907 × 85 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>186. </b>[<span>N02309</span>]<b> Tree Tops and Sky, Guildford Castle (?), Evening</b> <i>c.</i> 1807
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2309)
<br/>Mahogany veneer, 10 7/8 × 29 (27·5 × 73·5); a strip along the bottom, 5/8 (1·5) at the left, rising to 2 (5) on the right, has been added and repainted</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (one of 184–200*); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Tate Gallery 1931 (62); New York, Chicago and Toronto (47, pl. 37); Moscow and Leningrad 1960 (53); Norwich and V. and A. 1969–70 (41, repr. p. 23); R.A. 1974–5 (141); Leningrad and Moscow 1975–6 (12); Hamburg 1976 (17, repr.); Cambridge and R.A. 1980–1 (53, repr.); Paris 1983–4 (20 repr.); Birmingham 1984.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> MacColl 1920, p. 37; Davies 1946, p. 189 n. 19; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 23, pl. 34; Gage 1969, p. 38; Herrmann 1975, pp. 19, 228, colour pl. 34.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The building, formerly thought to be Windsor Castle, has been identified by Christopher Pinsent, in a letter of 2 March 1970, as Guildford Castle seen by evening light from the River Wey, the course of which is indicated by the gap between the trees. Before this identification Gage had included this sketch in his third group, entirely of Windsor and Eton subjects, seeing an affinity with the handling of foliage in <i>Crossing the Brook</i>, exhibited in 1815 (No. 130 [<span>N00497</span>]); but see p. 120.</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 castle cloud England England, South East England, Southern Guildford, Guildford Castle landscape military places sky Surrey UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions weather wooded