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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Stirling and Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rumbling Bridge, Perth and Kinross 1834

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rumbling Bridge, Perth and Kinross’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Recto:
Rumbling Bridge, Perth and Kinross 1834
D26339
Turner Bequest CCLXIX 43
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘43’ top left running vertically and ‘340’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIX 43’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the book turned to the left, this sketch of Rumbling Bridge in the village of the same name in Perth and Kinross was identified by David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan by its peculiar double arch (one above the other).1 The view is from fairly high up the bank on the north side of the River Devon just downstream (south) of the bridge. Looking along the shaded gorge, the bridge spans a dark and deep crack in the rocks. As Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan put it, ‘Turner’s intention here seems to have been to emphasise the depth of the cutting through which the river flows.’2 There are further sketches of the bridge on the reverse of this page (folio 43 verso; D26340) and on folio 10 (D26277); see folio 43 verso for further details.
Ruled-off at the bottom of the page is a sketch of a river running through a hilly landscape. This is likely to be a view of the River Devon from nearby.

Thomas Ardill
October 2010

1
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1990, vol.10 no.1, p.12, and Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1990, vol.10 no.2, p.30.
2
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1990, vol.10 no.2, p.30.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Rumbling Bridge, Perth and Kinross 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-rumbling-bridge-perth-and-kinross-r1136269, accessed 19 September 2024.