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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Perspective lectures c.1809-28 > V. Miscellaneous Preparatory Perspective ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Perspective Study of Pulteney Bridge, Bath c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Perspective Study of Pulteney Bridge, Bath’ c.1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Perspective Study of Pulteney Bridge, Bath circa 1810
D17081
Turner Bequest CXCV 111
Pencil, pen and ink on white wove paper, 376 x 546 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made several perspective views of Robert Adam’s Pulteney Bridge, Bath (built 1770) in connection with his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy. This one of the north side of the bridge, based on an aquatint etching of ‘Pulteney Bridge from the Road’ by the younger Thomas Malton (1748–1804), was traced to make the guiding lines of two incomplete works (Tate D17082; Turner Bequest CXCV 112 and D40007). Maurice Davies suggests that Turner may have left the drawings unfinished because they were too small for showing during his lectures.1 See Diagrams 58 and 59 (Tate D 17083, D17084; Turner Bequest CXCV 113, 114) for the final versions.
1
Davies 1992, p.58.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower states that the sheet is Imperial size Whatman paper made by James Whatman, the younger at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.1
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Currently laid down, but with indications of Turner’s transfer process and an inscription by an unknown hand ‘Mr Landseer | [...] Sketches’ centre right visible through mount.

Andrea Fredericksen
June 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Perspective Study of Pulteney Bridge, Bath c.1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2004, revised by David Blayney Brown, January 2012, 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-perspective-study-of-pulteney-bridge-bath-r1136807, accessed 23 April 2024.