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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tamworth from Hopwas 1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Verso:
Tamworth from Hopwas 1830
D22382
Turner Bequest CCXL 32a
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Partial watermark ‘[Prince of Wales feathers]’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are two views here, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, with the smaller one at the top right reprising the main sketch. As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has confirmed that they show Tamworth, with its castle and St Editha’s Church to the east.1 The viewpoint is in the vicinity of the village of Hopwas, roughly midway along the seven-mile route between the Lichfield and Tamworth, possibly on the hill south of the road from which Turner drew the two on folio 33 recto opposite (D22383), which he inscribed ‘Hopwas Hill’.
There are other views of Tamworth on folios 34 recto and verso (D22385, D22386), and also in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook (see under Tate D22072; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 51c).
1
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.
Technical notes:
This leaf is affected by the extensive pale brown, mottled staining which extends throughout this particular gathering (folios 31–42; D22379–D22402) and also folios 30 and 43 recto and verso (D22377, D22378, D22403, D22404), as discussed in the Technical notes to the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Tamworth from Hopwas 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, 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-tamworth-from-hopwas-r1148532, accessed 28 March 2024.