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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Cheshire, Derbyshire, North Wales ... > Tabley No.2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tabley Water Tower, and a Tower on a Bridge 1808

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tabley Water Tower, and a Tower on a Bridge’ 1808
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Recto:
Tabley Water Tower, and a Tower on a Bridge 1808
D06979
Turner Bequest CIV 86
Pencil on white laid paper, 98 x 162 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘86’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CIV 86’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. See also verso (D06980; Turner Bequest CIV 86a) and folio 88 verso (D06982; Turner Bequest CIV 87a) for variants of a tower or arch on a bridge. In the present case, the tower on the left appears to be the water tower that Sir John Leicester had built in the mere or Moat at Tabley. See Introduction to the sketchbook for Turner’s visit to Tabley in 1808 and his omission of the tower from his first drawings and sketch of Tabley House from the Moat, and subsequent inclusion of it, presumably on the instructions of Sir John Leicester.
The separate drawing on the right, as in the following drawings, shows a tower incorporated into a bridge. Perhaps Turner was amusing himself as an amateur architect.

David Blayney Brown
May 2010

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Tabley Water Tower, and a Tower on a Bridge 1808 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2010, 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-tabley-water-tower-and-a-tower-on-a-bridge-r1133735, accessed 23 April 2024.