Joseph Mallord William Turner R.A. 1775-1851

H.A.J.Munro of Novar, his sale at Christie's 2nd June 1877, lot 7 (bt McLean);

McLean, his sale at Christie's, 1st April 1881, lot 37

W.G.Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W.Turner, Vol II, 1913, p.201, 285;

Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W.Turner, 1979, p.430, no.1094;

Jan Piggot, Turner’s Vignettes, 1993, pp.56, 99

This present watercolour was the title vignette to Scott’s Life of Dryden which was published by Robert Cadell in 1834 as volume 1 of Scott’s Miscellaneous Prose. Turner began illustrating Cadell’s edition of Scott’s Miscelleneous Prose immediately after he had finished his work for Cadell’s previous project, Scott’s Poetical Works. The present watercolour was executed in circa 1833 after which it was engraved by J.Horsburgh and used to illustrate this publication. The twenty-eight volumes of Scott’s Miscellaneous Prose immediately followed the issue of Scott’s Poetical Works and were published in monthly sequence between 1834 and 1836.

A large series of Scott’s Miscellaneous Prose consisted of Scott’s biographies and contributions to periodicals. Turner created three vignettes in celebration of writers admired by Scott: the present work was used to illustrate the Life of Dryden, another was dedicated to Shakespeare and the third paid homage to Smollett.

Turner’s preparatory drawings for the present vignette can be seen in the Mouth of the Thames sketchbook, now at the Tate Gallery (T.B. CCLXXVIII-5,6,7). One of these drawings is particularly close in composition to the present work and also depicts Dryden’s monument amidst the towering columns and vaulted ceiling of Westminster Abbey (CCLXXVIII – 5). A rapid pencil drawing of the monument (CCLXXVIII – 7 verso) is also included in this sketchbook.