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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Bridge between East and West Looe 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 116 Recto:
The Bridge between East and West Looe 1811
D08583
Turner Bequest CXXIII 113
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘113’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 113’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is to the north from East Looe, with West Looe opposite. From or near this spot, Turner looked in the opposite direction towards the church at West Looe to make the sketch on folio 117 recto (D08585; CXXIII 114). For further studies, see under folio 115 verso (D08582; CXXIII 112a).
Eric Shanes has noted this sketch, along with that on folio 115 verso opposite, as a source for the watercolour East and West Looe, Cornwall of about 1815 (Manchester Art Gallery),1 engraved in 1818 for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England2 (see the concordance of the series in the 1811 tour introduction). However, the direct source of the composition (as recognised by Finberg and also noted by Shanes3) is a drawing in the Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08887; Turner Bequest CXXV 17a).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.352 no.461, reproduced.
2
Shanes 1981, p.152.
3
Finberg 1909, I, p.355; Shanes 1981, p.152.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Bridge between East and West Looe 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-the-bridge-between-east-and-west-looe-r1137060, accessed 28 March 2024.