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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > County Durham and Northumberland 1817 > Durham, North Shore, Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Elvet Bridge and Gilesgate, Durham 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Elvet Bridge and Gilesgate, Durham’ 1817
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 76 Verso:
Elvet Bridge and Gilesgate, Durham 1817
D12414
Turner Bequest CLVII 76a
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 185 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner looks east-north-east up the River Wear, spanned by the medieval Elvet Bridge. Beyond, the ground rises to Gilesgate and the tower of St Giles’s Church on the left; the hillside is now occupied by the extensive buildings of Durham University’s College of St Hild and St Bede. Beyond the shallow valley east of the church is Pelaw Wood, which still survives. Turner had made a detailed drawing of the east end of the bridge and the houses built on it in the North of England sketchbook of 1797 (Tate D00937; Turner Bequest XXXIV 31), including the tall, hexagonal façade indicated here towards the right.
This subject is isolated towards one end of the sketchbook, but there is a continuous run of drawings of Durham towards the other, between folio 6 recto (D12325) and folio 14 recto (D12334), including a view of the far side of the bridge on folio 11 recto (D12331). For Turner’s other visits to the city, see the entry for D12325.
Technical notes:
There is a small hole, possibly a paper fault, near the centre of the leaf.

Matthew Imms
February 2010

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Elvet Bridge and Gilesgate, Durham 1817 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-elvet-bridge-and-gilesgate-durham-r1139415, accessed 25 April 2024.