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Abingdon from the Thames Navigation

Maker

(artist)
1775-1851

Title

Date of Production

1804

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink (mostly obscured by the watercolour, but visible via transmitted light), watercolour with some added gum arabic, bodycolour and scraping on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 15.4 cm
Width: 22.2 cm

Accession Number

D.2007.DS.41

Mode of Acquisition

Dorothy Scharf, bequest, 2007 (March)

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Turner was familiar with Abingdon, near Oxford, from childhood visits, and between 1804-05 he made many sketching trips up the Thames from his riverside house near London. This watercolour is one of seven commissioned by William Byrne for his six-part 'Britannia Depicta'. Against a backdrop of rooftops and spires, Turner features an attractive wooden lock and boatmen in action on the Thames Navigation. The fact that no such waterway faces the town suggests that the siting of the lock is a picturesque invention.

Notes

The print after this, by William Byrne, is inscribed '1st Jany 1805', suggesting a date of 1804 for this watercolour.

Provenance

Mrs Woolner; purchased from her by Thomas Agnew & Sons (London), 1908; purchased there by Sir Charles Wakefield (1859-1941), 1909; his sale, Christie's (London), 30 June 1911, lot 30; purchased there by Thomas Agnew & Sons (London); purchased there by Scott & Fowles (New York), 1911; Monnell (?); Brian Pilkington, London, by 1977; purchased from him by Thomas Agnew & Sons (London); purchased there by Miss Dorothy Scharf, London (1942-2004); Scharf Bequest 2007

Exhibition History

Paths to Fame - Turner's Watercolour Landscapes, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 30/10/2008-25/01/2009

Paths to Fame - Turner's Watercolour Landscapes, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, England, 16/07/2008-12/10/2008

104th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 17/01/1977-18/02/1977

Literature

Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld Gallery, Wordsworth Trust; Courtauld Gallery, 2008-2009
no. 9
ill. on p. 63

Wilton, Andrew, The life and work of J.M.W. Turner, London, 1979
no. 309

Rawlinson, W.G., The engraved work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London, 1908; I
vol. I, pp. lxxxix, 29 ...More

Armstrong, Sir Walter, Turner, London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1902
p. 238 ...Less

Inscriptions

Inscription: By JMW Turner

Inscription: 3

Inscription: 9

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