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 > Thames, from Reading to Walton ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Thames and Caversham Bridge, near Reading, from Upstream; Close-Up of the Bridge from Midstream 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Thames and Caversham Bridge, near Reading, from Upstream; Close-Up of the Bridge from Midstream’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The River Thames and Caversham Bridge, near Reading, from Upstream; Close-Up of the Bridge from Midstream 1805
D05945
Turner Bequest XCV 41
Pencil on paper, 259 x 367 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘41’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XCV 41’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a left-hand page from the sketchbook. For Caversham views in the sketchbook see D05905; Turner Bequest XCV 1. In addition to views of the Thames valley from Caversham towards Reading, Turner made this quite detailed study of the old Caversham Bridge from just upstream, where Hill suggests that he might have moored his boat. As Turner shows, the bridge was a decrepit mixture of Norman, Gothic and wooden arches, the latter, on the right, spanning a wider gap made by demolishing part of the old, narrow-spanned structure to allow wider barges to pass through. The bridge standing today was built in 1924. Among other details observed here, a laden wagon crosses the bridge from the left, in the direction of Reading. If the atmosphere of this drawing is rustic-picturesque, that of a rough oil sketch of the same subject (Tate N02697)1 is almost classical, with the arches of the bridge treated in a more regular, schematic manner; in the foreground, Turner added cattle watering.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.117 no.162 (pl.162).
Verso:
Blank.
David Blayney Brown
Febrary 2009

How to cite

‘The River Thames and Caversham Bridge, near Reading, from Upstream; Close-Up of the Bridge from Midstream 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, 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-the-river-thames-and-caversham-bridge-near-reading-from-r1129978, accessed 19 April 2024.