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

As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has suggested that this rough sketch, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, shows the Tipton entrance to the Dudley Canal tunnel which runs for about two miles south-west under Dudley. The tunnel entrance is now part of the Black Country Living Museum, but the stark, open landscape shown here is difficult to relate to specific features today, with the hill running south to Dudley Castle dense with trees. The tower on the skyline may be the ruined castle keep,1 or possibly St Andrew’s Church, Netherton, further south; compare folios 43 verso and 46 recto (D22404, D22409). Turner drew the church in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook (Tate D22021; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 25a).

There is a similar view on folio 40 recto opposite (D22397). For other views of Dudley, see under the recto (D22395).

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.