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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > Old London Bridge Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Old London Bridge; Boats in the Pool of London; a Figure Study ?1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Old London Bridge; Boats in the Pool of London; a Figure Study’ ?1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
Old London Bridge; Boats in the Pool of London; a Figure Study ?1824
D17854
Turner Bequest CCV 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 162 mm
Part watermark ‘lls | 1’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?G...]’ towards top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCV – 11’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the main sketch, Old London Bridge is seen upstream to the west from the River Thames; there is a continuation at the bottom left. At the top is a separate study (or studies) made in the vicinity. Between the two registers is the torso of a man, perhaps as a detail of the figure standing in the small boat at the top right.
There is a rough stroke of yellowish watercolour at the bottom left. This may relate to the production of the 1824 watercolour known as The Port of London (Victoria and Albert Museum, London),1 engraved in 1827 as Old London Bridge and Vicinity (Tate impression: T06070); see the overall Introduction to the present Thames-related section. The view of the bridge here would have been a useful reference for the composition.
More than half the drawings in this sketchbook show the river around the bridge, and are likely to date from 1824; see the book’s Introduction.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.358 no.514, reproduced.
Technical notes:
There is an adventitious stroke of watercolour at the bottom left, as discussed above. Compare the similar marks on folios 9 verso, 10 recto, 20 verso and 34 verso (D17851, D17852, D17873, D17893).

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Old London Bridge; Boats in the Pool of London; a Figure Study ?1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-old-london-bridge-boats-in-the-pool-of-london-a-figure-study-r1172565, accessed 18 April 2024.