Not currently on display at the V&A

Fairground frieze

Watercolour Drawing
1934 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Born at Lambeth, Surrey in 1871, the son of Edmund Turner and his wife Sarah Ann née Staff who had previously lived in Norwich, Turner received artistic training through a sequence of some thirty letters dated 1908-1913 from Spencer Gore while working as a stockbroker's clerk. The correspondence was used by Esther Freud in her novel The Sea House. East Anglia was clearly a favourite of his, and he married a Norwich girl, Frances Elizabeth Birch at Norwich on 25 November 1893, around the time that he added the second name of Doman. Gore proposed his pupil John Doman Turner, who worked in pencil, charcoal, chalk, and watercolour but not in oils, as one of the 16 members of the Camden Town Group when it formed in 1911, and Turner Doman painted in Walberswick and Southwold areas of Suffolk from 1911 until at least 1936. His works included the 'Walberswick Scroll' a dioramic view of this Suffolk village painted in 1931 which includes every property in Walberswick on a scroll 21 inches high by 123 feet long. His extant drawings of Ilfracombe, Tenby, Eastbourne and Folkestone probably reflect holidays in these seaside towns. He also painted around Mitcham, Surrey before the First World War particularly on the annual visit of the fun-fair on Mitcham Common which were exhibited in London. He died at his Streatham home on 3 January 1938, and a major exhibition of his work was mounted by the University of Hull in 1997.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleFairground frieze (generic title)
Materials and techniques
pencil and watercolour on paper
Brief description
Frieze or panorama of fairground, fairground attractions and circuses at Southwold, Suffolk, 1934. Pencil and watercolour on paper by John Doman Turner (1871-1938)
Physical description
Very long paper frieze rolled around wooden 'cotton reel' composed of a series of pencil drawings and watercolours of fairs and fairgrounds attractions at Southwold, including images of Gallopers and Pinders and Kayes Brothers circuses, Clyde and Staffs Cottages, fairground workers and fairground booths, 1934. Inscribed Trinity Fair, South Green, Southwold, Monday 28 May 1934; Pinder's Circus, Carter's Marsh, Southwold, Friday August 3rd 1934, and Southwold Common, Monday 20th August 1934.
Dimensions
  • Height: 22.5cm
  • Length: 743cm
Summary
Born at Lambeth, Surrey in 1871, the son of Edmund Turner and his wife Sarah Ann née Staff who had previously lived in Norwich, Turner received artistic training through a sequence of some thirty letters dated 1908-1913 from Spencer Gore while working as a stockbroker's clerk. The correspondence was used by Esther Freud in her novel The Sea House. East Anglia was clearly a favourite of his, and he married a Norwich girl, Frances Elizabeth Birch at Norwich on 25 November 1893, around the time that he added the second name of Doman. Gore proposed his pupil John Doman Turner, who worked in pencil, charcoal, chalk, and watercolour but not in oils, as one of the 16 members of the Camden Town Group when it formed in 1911, and Turner Doman painted in Walberswick and Southwold areas of Suffolk from 1911 until at least 1936. His works included the 'Walberswick Scroll' a dioramic view of this Suffolk village painted in 1931 which includes every property in Walberswick on a scroll 21 inches high by 123 feet long. His extant drawings of Ilfracombe, Tenby, Eastbourne and Folkestone probably reflect holidays in these seaside towns. He also painted around Mitcham, Surrey before the First World War particularly on the annual visit of the fun-fair on Mitcham Common which were exhibited in London. He died at his Streatham home on 3 January 1938, and a major exhibition of his work was mounted by the University of Hull in 1997.
Collection
Accession number
S.579-1983

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdFebruary 10, 2006
Record URL
Download as: JSON