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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Farnley Hall and Yorkshire c.1808-24 > Scarborough 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Crambe Beck Bridge, on the Road between Malton and York c.1816-18

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Crambe Beck Bridge, on the Road between Malton and York’ c.1816-18
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
Crambe Beck Bridge, on the Road between Malton and York c.1816–18
D11969
Turner Bequest CLI 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 182 mm
Inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink ‘16’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CLI 16’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Identified by Finberg as an aqueduct, Turner’s subject here in fact records the still functioning viaduct carrying the main York to Malton road across the steep valley of Crambe Beck. The bridge was built in 1785 to the designs of John Carr of York. In 1805, more than a decade before Turner’s visit, it had been painted by John Sell Cotman in a famous watercolour sometimes known as ‘Chirk Aqueduct’ (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).1
Turner sketched the viaduct inside the back cover of this sketchbook (D40711) and it was the first subject in The Aqueduct sketchbook (Tate D11976; Turner Bequest CLII 2).
A small piece missing from the bottom right of this leaf has been repaired.
1
This title is challenged by Hill 2005, p.93.
Verso:
Blank

David Hill
September 2008

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Crambe Beck Bridge, on the Road between Malton and York c.1816–18 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-crambe-beck-bridge-on-the-road-between-malton-and-york-r1146996, accessed 19 April 2024.