Oil paint on mahogany veneer
Berkshire
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>
Windsor Lower Hope
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Berkshire
cloud
England
England, South East
England, Southern
field
hedge
landscape
places
plants and flowers
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
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Windsor, Windsor Castle
<p>This, and the painting shown on the opposite wall, represents the closest Turner came to what Constable described as 'natural painture'. It is one of eighteen small sketches of the Thames which Turner is thought that to have completed out of doors, perhaps on a small boat.</p><p>There are, however, notable difference between Turner's work and Constable's. Constable is concerned with making direct, even random, observations  of nature. Turner shows a greater  interest in the overall composition.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</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
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
2002-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-19
Outdoor Sketching
Collection based display
6 June 2004 – 8 May 2005
2005-05-08
6 June 2004 – 12 September 2004
2004-09-12
2004-06-06
Bucerius Kunst Forum (Hamburg, Germany)
http://www.buceriuskunstforum.de
6 June 2004 – 12 September 2004
2004-09-12
2004-06-06
Jenisch Haus (Hamburg, Germany)
24 September 2004 – 30 January 2005
2005-01-30
2004-09-24
Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin, Germany)
26 February 2005 – 8 May 2005
2005-05-08
2005-02-26
Aargauer Kunsthaus (Aarau, Switzerland)
http://www.aargauerkunsthaus.ch
2004-06-06
Cloud Images
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 September 2011 – 22 April 2012
2012-04-22
1 September 2011 – 22 April 2012
2012-04-22
2011-09-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-09-01
Skying: Looking at Clouds
Collection based display
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
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
Windsor from Lower Hope
support: 321 × 737 mm
frame: 505 × 915 × 75 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>
This, and 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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> shown on the opposite wall, represents the closest Turner came to what Constable described as 'natural painture'. It is one of eighteen small sketches of the Thames which Turner is thought that to have completed out of doors, perhaps on a small boat.</p>
<p>
 </p>
<p>
There are, however, notable difference between Turner's work and Constable's. Constable is concerned with making direct, even random, observations <br/>
of nature. Turner shows a greater <br/>
interest in the overall <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>.</p>
<p>
 </p>
Display caption
2004-09-08T00:00:00
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>178. </b>[<span>N02678</span>] <b>Windsor from Lower Hope</b> <i>c.</i>
1807
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2678)
<br/>Mahogany veneer, 12 5/8 × 29 (32 × 73·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (one of 184–200*); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Tate Gallery 1931 (69); New York, Chicago and Toronto 1946–7 (48, pl. 37); British Council tour, Cologne (54, repr.), Rome (55, repr.) and Warsaw (54, repr.) 1966–7; <i>The Thames in Art</i> Henley and Cheltenham June–July 1967 (20); Tokyo and Kyoto 1970–71 (33, repr.); Dresden (repr.) and Berlin (colour pl. 8) 1972 (2); Milan 1975 (150, repr.); Hamburg 1976 (18, repr.); Cambridge and R.A. 1980–1 (52, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 189 n. 19; Gage 1969, p. 38.</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
Berkshire cloud England England, South East England, Southern field hedge landscape places plants and flowers UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions weather Windsor, Windsor Castle