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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Midlands 1794-1802 > Drawings Made on the Midland Tour > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Shrewsbury: The Town seen from the River with the New English Bridge in the Foreground 1794

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Shrewsbury: The Town seen from the River with the New English Bridge in the Foreground’ 1794
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Shrewsbury: The Town seen from the River with the New English Bridge in the Foreground 1794
D00331
Turner Bequest XXI E
Pencil on white wove paper, 216 x 274 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXI E’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
A finished watercolour was based on this drawing (private collection).1 It is possible that Turner intended the subject to be engraved in his series for Walker’s Copper-Plate Magazine, several of which are general views of towns. No plate was in fact made of it. Finberg refers to the subject as ‘New Welsh Bridge’. The English Bridge was built between 1768 and 1774 to a design by John Gwynne.
1
Wilton 1979, p.314 no.136, reproduced.
Technical notes:
The sheet is slightly irregular, with the top edge sloping down to the right.
Verso:
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Mr Lyte’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed in a later hand ‘4’. For ‘Mr Lyte’ see Tate D00354 and D40238 (Turner Bequest XXII A, Aa verso).

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Shrewsbury: The Town seen from the River with the New English Bridge in the Foreground 1794 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-shrewsbury-the-town-seen-from-the-river-with-the-new-english-r1141053, accessed 25 April 2024.