'Llangollen: Bridge over the River Dee', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Llangollen: Bridge over the River Dee

From Tabley No.2 Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CIV

Date 1808

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 98 x 162 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D06960

Turner Bequest CIV 76 a

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Tabley No.2 Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 77 Verso:

Llangollen: Bridge over the River Dee 1808

D06960
Turner Bequest CIV 76a

Pencil on white laid paper, 98 x 162 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Corn’ lower left of centre and ‘Light’ right of centre

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Drawn with the sketchbook inverted, this subject continues on folio 78 of the sketchbook (D06961; Turner Bequest CIV 77). See Introduction for Turner’s travels in North Wales in 1808, and his fondness for fishing. The subject is likely to be Llangollen, of which there are probably further views on folios 79 verso, 80 verso, 81 verso, 82 verso and 83 verso (D06964, D06966, D06968, D06970, D06972; Turner Bequest CIV 78a, 79a, 80a, 81a, 82a). As all these are drawn with the book inverted, Turner may have been working from the back of it at this point.

Turner’s note indicates shafts of sunlight, falling right of centre.

David Blayney Brown
May 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.