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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother; Views of Pulborough Bridge 1825

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 24 Recto:
Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother; Views of Pulborough Bridge 1825
D18749
Turner Bequest CCXIII 24
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 113 mm
Part watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Timber’ towards top centre, ‘Pulborough’ centre right, and ‘Lime Kiln’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘24’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIII – 24’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the upper subject was identified by Ian Warrell; the watermill stands on the north bank of the River Rother south of the village of Fittleworth, about three miles south-east of Petworth, but is much altered. It is also seen in a gouache and pen and ink drawing of the type usually associated with Turner’s 1827 visit to Petworth but perhaps a little earlier (Tate D24606; Turner Bequest CCLIX 41).1 The mill also appears in full-page drawings on folios 23 recto and verso (D18747, D18748).
Below are two views with a church tower beyond a bridge, the first, across the middle of the page, labelled ‘Pulborough’; the village stands north of the River Arun about two miles east of Fittleworth, and Pulborough Bridge is shown . The middle view shows Pulborough Bridge from the south, with St Mary’s Church on the hill beyond (now obscured by trees), while the bottom view shows the bridge from the east. It has since been by-passed by a modern bridge running in parallel immediately to its west. There are further views of it on folio 25 recto and verso (D18751, D18752).
The sequence of sketches between folio 17 verso (D18736) and (apparently) folio 26 recto (D18753), and possibly 26 verso (D18754), comprises Sussex subjects in the vicinity of Petworth. For a note on Lord Egremont, Petworth, and Turner’s work there, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
See Ian Warrell in Butlin, Luther and Warrell 1989, pp.118, 123 note 101.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother; Views of Pulborough Bridge 1825 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-fittleworth-mill-on-the-river-rother-views-of-pulborough-r1172871, accessed 29 March 2024.