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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Ivy Bridge, on the River Erme at Ivybridge; Dunster and the Somerset Coast 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Ivy Bridge, on the River Erme at Ivybridge; Dunster and the Somerset Coast’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 156 Recto:
The Ivy Bridge, on the River Erme at Ivybridge; Dunster and the Somerset Coast 1811
D08654
Turner Bequest CXXIII 153
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 117 x 75 mm
Part watermark ‘th | 6’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘153’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 153’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are two separate drawings on this page. The vertically orientated view of what is probably the Ivy Bridge with a horseman crossing, made on the South Devon leg of Turner’s 1811 tour, was abandoned; a second, horizontal version was completed on the verso (D08655; CXXIII 153a). The more delicate profile of a coastline with a vertical feature, drawn with the page turned horizontally, appears to show the Conygar Tower above Dunster in Somerset, and the coast of Blue Anchor Bay beyond. There is a similar sketch, definitely showing Dunster, on folio 181 verso (D08699; CXXIII 178v); for further views, see under folio 19 verso (D08398).
Eric Shanes has noted the bridge sketch as a source for the watercolour Ivy Bridge of about 1813 (Tate D18157; Turner Bequest CCVIII X),1 engraved in 1816 for The Rivers of Devon, though not published until 1821;2 it is likely that in listing page ‘153’, Shanes intended to cite the more extensive drawing on the verso, referred to above.

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.350 no.442, reproduced.
2
Shanes 1981, p.152, and 1990, pp.37 under no.15, 283 note 14; see also Shanes, Joll, Warrell and others 2000, p.102.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Ivy Bridge, on the River Erme at Ivybridge; Dunster and the Somerset Coast 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-ivy-bridge-on-the-river-erme-at-ivybridge-dunster-and-r1137132, accessed 18 April 2024.