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 Wharves and Shipping in the Pool of London below Old London Bridge, with St Paul's Cathedral Beyond; Study of a Sailor's Costume; the Tower of Southwark Cathedral ?1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Wharves and Shipping in the Pool of London below Old London Bridge, with St Paul's Cathedral Beyond; Study of a Sailor's Costume; the Tower of Southwark Cathedral’ ?1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Recto:
Wharves and Shipping in the Pool of London below Old London Bridge, with St Paul’s Cathedral Beyond; Study of a Sailor’s Costume; the Tower of Southwark Cathedral ?1824
D17866
Turner Bequest CCV 17
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 162 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Blue Jacket’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘17’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCV – 17’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Across the middle of the page is a continuation of the view west to Old London Bridge on folio 16 verso (D17865); on this page the Monument is seen beyond the masts on the left, and the roofline of the classical Custom House (now gone) is lightly indicated. At the top centre, framed by pencil lines, is a thumbnail sketch of shipping, with a study of a sailor’s hooped jacket at the top right. Inverted at the bottom right are separate studies of a sailing boat and the upper stage and pinnacles of the tower of Southwark Cathedral.
More than half the drawings in this sketchbook show the River Thames around Old London Bridge, and are likely to date from 1824; see the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Wharves and Shipping in the Pool of London below Old London Bridge, with St Paul’s Cathedral Beyond; Study of a Sailor’s Costume; the Tower of Southwark Cathedral ?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-wharves-and-shipping-in-the-pool-of-london-below-old-london-r1172577, accessed 19 April 2024.