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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Abergavenny Bridge 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Abergavenny Bridge 1798
D01669
Turner Bequest XLI 36
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 292 x 460 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom left
Stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in black ink ‘32’ or ‘37’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘36’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLI – 36’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner exhibited a view of Abergavenny bridge, Monmouthshire, clearing up after a showery day at the Royal Academy in 1799; this may be the work now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,1 or an untraced version.2 Although the composition of this view is not the same as that of the exhibited work, it seems likely that is shows the same distinctive bridge. A sketch of Abergavenny Bridge occurs in the contemporary Dynevor Castle sketchbook (Tate D01496–D01497; Turner Bequest XL 20a–21).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, pp.327–8 no.252, reproduced.
2
Ibid., p.328 no.253.
Technical notes:
The work has faded badly from exposure, except around the edges formerly protected by a mount. It was withdrawn from the Loan Collection in August 1905 because of fading to the indigo pigment in particular.1
1
See Finberg 1909, I, p.99.
Verso:
Blank; possibly inscribed in red ink (the sheet has been backed).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘?Abergavenny Bridge 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, 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-abergavenny-bridge-r1173283, accessed 29 March 2024.