JMW TURNER: NARRAWAY SKETCHBOOK

narraway_sketchbook_1790

September 2023

The Narraway Sketchbook at Princeton Art Museum

The sketchbook was given by Turner to John Narraway in 1790/91. It is now in Princeton Art Museum accession number x1957-1. The appraisal from which we concluded this study was a document by Robin Hamlyn.

The Date

An inscription by John Narraway suggests that the sketchbook was given to him by Turner in 1791. This predates Turner's visit in September 1791 [Finberg 'The Life of JMW Turner']. Finberg, page 20 line 24, implies that the September 1791 visit to the Narraways was Turner's first and that The Bristol and Malmesbury Sketchbook was in use. The Narraway Sketchbook suggests otherwise, that there must have been an earlier visit. In September 1791 Turner was 16 years 5 months old which is older than the apparent age of the small oval self portrait [NPG MW06422]; thus there are two pieces of evidence for an earlier visit (Narraway inscription and small oval portrait).

This is the Narraway inscription as reported by Hamlyn:

If Turner was 15 in the small oval portrait it would place the visit in the year April 1790 to April 1791. Narraway's hand?. Would Narraway describe himself as 'Mr Narraway's - Bristol? Click the image to see more.

The Drawings

Bearing in mind that our examination was connected with the authentification of 'The Rising Squall' only three drawings are of interest and these only indirectly:

• Fo. 73V, Portrait of a Child
• Fo. 74V, cottage after Loutherbourg
• Fo. 75V, Horses and Wagon after Loutherbourg

The Portrait of a Child shows probably a girl age four or five. Ann Dart was born around September 1785; in April 1790 she was 4 years 6 months. Other girls around the Narraway household at that time were older; Mary Anne Browne and Susanna Narraway were both 13. There is supposedly a 'face' in the Bristol and Malmesbury Sketchbook at Fo.11V but it is not visible in the photograph.

The sketch of Horses and wagon were copied from a Loutherbourg print. The covered wagon and horses from 75V and the cottage from 74V were used in 'The Country Waggon', Rev. Robert Nixon's property. The Loutherbourg oil and Turner's sketches 74V and 75V are the same orientation but the photo of 'The Country Waggon' extracted from the McCormick catalogue is reversed. The print supplied in Hamlyn's essay, apparently from the British Museum, dated 1792 and ,as he suggests,cannot be the one which Turner sketched from in 1791. Hamlyn and British Museum curator's notes indicate that an earlier version was published in 1790 in the 'European Magazine' and this was found in the November edition. Hamlyn offers several alternatives as to how Turner may have copied the Loutherbourg for Fos. 74V and 75V. However, Hamlyn does not mention 'The Country Waggon'. Maybe Turner kept a 'scrapbook' or loose collection of newspaper cuttings; he must have had a copy of the Loutherbourg during the late 1790 or early 1791 visit to Narraway and retained it (and had it with him at Nixon's) until he painted 'The Country Waggon' in September 1792; by which time he had left the Narraway Sketchbook in Bristol.

Loutherbourg oil...

European Magazine November 1790

74V, Late 1790 or early 1791

75V, Late 1790 or early 1791..

Feb 1792 Walter Thomas engraving published by S. Watts.

The Country Waggon, September 1792