J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Hesperides (1) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner London Bridge from Downstream near the End of Billingsgate, with St Magnus-the-Martyr to the Right, the Monument Further to the Right c.1805-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘London Bridge from Downstream near the End of Billingsgate, with St Magnus-the-Martyr to the Right, the Monument Further to the Right’ c.1805-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
London Bridge from Downstream near the End of Billingsgate, with St Magnus-the-Martyr to the Right, the Monument Further to the Right circa 1805–6
D05785
Turner Bequest XCIII 12
Pen and ink and watercolour, with scratching out, on white wove paper, prepared with a grey wash, 171 x 262 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘12’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XCIII 12’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This richly-coloured study is the most elaborate of a group continuing on folios 13–15 (D05786–D05789) in which Turner considers different views of the Pool of London, as both Finberg and Hill observe probably with a picture in mind that, as the latter adds, might be ‘a modern equivalent of Claude’s great historical ports’. Another such pairing might have contrasted a busy view of the Thames in central London with the more picturesque panorama of the river and distant City from Greenwich Park that Turner painted in London, exhibited at Turner’s Gallery in 1809 (Tate N00483).1 The interplay of church spires and ‘Commercial care and busy toil’ (as Turner described it in verses written for London) would unite these compositions. In the event, it was only in the following decade that Turner tackled the Pool of London in finished watercolours or unfinished oils, and he never completed a painting of the commercial heart of the capital.2
Hill identifies the viewpoint and buildings, including the church of St Magnus-the-Martyr and the Monument, both by Sir Christopher Wren. While some views of the river in the sketchbook are taken from a boat, here Turner has descended to the water’s edge below the wharves at low tide. Hill imagines him rising early with the sun to make the watercolour, having perhaps spent the night on a boat. To his right, not shown in any detail, would have been the Custom House, for which see folios 14 and 15 (D05788, D05789).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.69–70 no.97 (pl.104).
2
Andrew Kennedy, ‘London’, in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann eds., The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, p.177 and most recently James Hamilton, Turner’s Britain, exhibition catalogue, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham 2003, pp.128–30.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘London Bridge from Downstream near the End of Billingsgate, with St Magnus-the-Martyr to the Right, the Monument Further to the Right c.1805–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2007, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-london-bridge-from-downstream-near-the-end-of-billingsgate-r1130007, accessed 23 April 2024.