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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Stirling and the West Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Stirling Old Bridge 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Stirling Old Bridge’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
Stirling Old Bridge 1831
D26456
Turner Bequest CCLXX 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Dunard’ top left running vertically
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘11’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 11’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Stirling’s Old Bridge forms the focal point of this view of Stirling from the north-east. Standing at the approach to the bridge we look across the River Forth to Stirling with the castle on the hill above the town. The tower of the Holy Rude Parish Church can also be seen just to the left of the bridge turrets. There is a similar view on folio 15 (D26464) and a view of Stirling from the bridge on folio 10 verso (D26455). For references to all of Turner’s sketches of Stirling in this book, see folio 13 (D26460).
Across the top of the page are two sketches of the outlines of distant hills, probably the Ochil Hills to the north of Stirling. The inscription running up the page to the left of the sketches appears to be unconnected to them. This says ‘Dunard’, which David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have noted forms part of an inscription on folio 70 (D26575).1

Thomas Ardill
June 2010

1
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1990, vol.10 no.1, p.17.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Stirling Old Bridge 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-stirling-old-bridge-r1134890, accessed 25 April 2024.