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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Birmingham, with a Canal in the Foreground 1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Recto:
Birmingham, with a Canal in the Foreground 1830
D22415
Turner Bequest CCXL 49
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Canal’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘49’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXL – 49’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Previous commentators have taken this to be a Dudley view, like many on adjacent pages, but James Hamilton seems correct in his identification of this as a Birmingham subject;1 as part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has confirmed this.2 Folios 45 recto and 47 recto (D22407, D22411) may also show Birmingham. The key landmark is the tall dome on the right, apparently that of St Philip’s Church (later Birmingham Cathedral). The church spires are probably St Martin’s-in-the-Bullring on the left, and the lost Christ Church on the skyline near the centre. Their alignment is similar in a drawing in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook (Tate D22023; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 26a), showing Birmingham from the east, and the viewpoint here may be in the middle distance there, making Turner’s ‘Canal’ the Warwick and Birmingham. Later developments preclude a clear prospect today. As Hamilton notes, the ‘detail in these studies is spare, but there is an intensity of expression in the drawings of church spires and towers of the two towns [Birmingham and Dudley], and of the dirty and heavy industrial equipment lying about.’3
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
Hamilton 2003, p.15.
2
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.
3
Hamilton 2003, p.150.

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-r1148565, accessed 28 March 2024.