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 ... > Mortlake and Pulborough Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: A Detail of The Marquee beside Old London Bridge 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: A Detail of The Marquee beside Old London Bridge’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: A Detail of The Marquee beside Old London Bridge 1825
D18822
Turner Bequest CCXIII 81
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 187 mm
Inscribed by Turner ‘Red Blue’ and ‘Red W. Standard’ towards top left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘81’ top left, upside down (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCXIII – 81’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this slight sketch shows a detail of the marquee erected over the coffer-dam around the site of the southernmost pier of the new London Bridge, for the foundation stone ceremony held on the riverbed on 15 June 1825, with colour notes relating to the flags flown for the occasion.
The ceremony and other studies relating to it at the beginning and end of this sketchbook are discussed in the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: A Detail of The Marquee beside Old London 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-the-london-bridge-foundation-stone-ceremony-a-detail-of-the-r1172944, accessed 25 April 2024.