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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Birmingham and Coventry Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Birmingham 1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Birmingham’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Recto:
?Birmingham 1830
D22407
Turner Bequest CCXL 45
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘45’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXL – 45’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards1 hesitated to concur with previous commentators that this is a Dudley view. Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the apparent presence of two church spires would suggest that the subject may be Birmingham (Dudley’s only spire being St Thomas’s), despite falling between various identified Dudley views. Folio 47 recto (D22411) may show Birmingham and 49 recto (D22415) certainly does. The chimneys in the middle distance and the bridge on the left may indicate a canal-side setting; compare the Birmingham views in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook, for example Tate D21997 and D21998 (Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 13a, 14).
For other views of Birmingham, see under folio 3 recto (D22327); and for Dudley, see under folio 39 recto (D22395).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Birmingham 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-birmingham-r1148557, accessed 26 April 2024.