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, with a Canal in the Foreground 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Birmingham, with a Canal in the Foreground’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 47 Recto:
?Birmingham, with a Canal in the Foreground 1830
D22411
Turner Bequest CCXL 47
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘47’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXL – 47’ bottom right
 
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As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards1 hesitated to concur with previous commentators that this is a Dudley view. The apparent presence of a tall dome on the skyline at the centre would suggest that the subject may be Birmingham (the dome being that of St Philips Church, later Birmingham Cathedral), despite falling between various identified Dudley views. Folio 45 recto (D22407) may show Birmingham and 49 recto (D22415) certainly does. The boat with figures at the centre may be a barge, possibly on the Birmingham and Worcester Canal; compare the views in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook, for example Tate D21997 (Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 13a).
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, with a Canal in the Foreground 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-with-a-canal-in-the-foreground-r1148561, accessed 20 September 2024.