'Durham Cathedral and Castle beyond Elvet Bridge', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Durham Cathedral and Castle beyond Elvet Bridge

From Durham, North Shore, Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLVII

Date 1817

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 116 x 185 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D12331

Turner Bequest CLVII 11

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Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Durham, North Shore, Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 11 Recto:

Durham Cathedral and Castle beyond Elvet Bridge 1817

D12331
Turner Bequest CLVII 11

Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 185 mm
Part watermark ‘J Wh | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘CLVII – 11’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

To make this slight sketch of the medieval Elvet Bridge its surroundings, Turner looked down the Wear from its north bank at about the point where the New Elvet Bridge now crosses, with the cathedral and castle on the skyline to the south-west. There is a very brief continuation of trees to the left on folio 10 verso opposite (D40921). An elaborately-detailed townscape from the same viewpoint, made in 1797 on Turner’s first tour of the north, is in the Tweed and Lakes sketchbook (Tate D01017; Turner Bequest XXXV 14), and there is a view of the castle and bridge from further east in the Helmsley sketchbook of 1801 (D02503, D02504; LIII 25a–26).

This is one of a continuous run of drawings of Durham, beginning on folio 6 recto (D12325) and concluding on folio 14 recto (D12334), with a further sketch of Elvet Bridge (from the opposite side) on folio 76 verso (D12414). For Turner’s other visits to the city, see the entry for D12325.

Matthew Imms
February 2010

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.