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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Richmond Hill; Hastings to Margate ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Four Views of Walton Bridge c.1816-19

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Views of Walton Bridge’ c.1816-19
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 51 Recto:
Four Views of Walton Bridge circa 1816–19
D10496
Turner Bequest CXL 45
Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Stone Band and Arches | and low Water.’ And ‘Band Stone | Break ... whitened’ below top image
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘45’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXL 45’ bottom left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Of the several studies in this sketchbook of Walton Bridge as rebuilt by James Paine, these have the closest claim to be associated with the watercolour (private collection)1 engraved by J.C. Varrall for Picturesque Views in England and Wales, as Eric Shanes observes. The uppermost of these four studies shows the section of the bridge at the right in the watercolour while that at the bottom of the page corresponds to its complete composition. Turner notes the white stone trim on the mainly brick-built bridge, as he does also on folio 48 (D10490; Turner Bequest CXL 42). While Turner could have relied on his earlier painting Walton Bridges (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne)2 these drawings indicate a later return to the site.

David Blayney Brown
July 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.396 no.824.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.50 no.63 (pl.71).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Four Views of Walton Bridge c.1816–19 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2011, 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-four-views-of-walton-bridge-r1131489, accessed 19 September 2024.