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 and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Greystone Bridge, on the River Tamar 1814

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Greystone Bridge, on the River Tamar’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 121 Verso:
?Greystone Bridge, on the River Tamar 1814
D09619
Turner Bequest CXXXII 121a
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘B[...] Heath’ top centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg tentatively suggested that Turner’s rather cramped inscription reads ‘Beach Heath’, then attempted to interpret this as meaning ‘Becky Fall’.1 Becky Falls are on a tributary of the River Bovey, north-west of Bovey Tracy on the east side of Dartmoor. Although Turner did apparently draw at nearby Chudleigh (see under folio 2 recto; D09483), there does not seem to be any particular likelihood that Becky Falls is what Turner has written here.
The bridge and its setting suggest the Tamar Valley, west of Dartmoor, as seen on nearby pages. Greystone Bridge, south-east of Launceston (see under folio 106 recto; D09596) may be a possibility; compare the bridge on folio 122 recto opposite (D09622). For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.375.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Greystone Bridge, on the River Tamar 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, 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-greystone-bridge-on-the-river-tamar-r1147168, accessed 23 April 2024.