Joseph Mallord William Turner

Birmingham from the South-West

1830

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Kenilworth Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 120 × 203 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D22007
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 18 a

Catalogue entry

The main view along the top continues to the right all across folio 19 recto opposite (D22008) where there are identifiable churches, and again onto folios 19 verso and 20 recto (D22009, D22010). There is a series of smaller views running across the foot of both pages, separated by pencil lines.

As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has compared this prospect with The South West View of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, a 1731 engraving by the Buck brothers.1 The subject had been identified as Birmingham by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) and the watercolour and Turner scholar C.F. Bell (died 1966) in undated manuscript notes in copies of Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.2

For other views of Birmingham, see under folio 3 verso (D21980).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.

A.J. Finberg, undated MS notes in a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.II, p.730; C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in another copy at the same location, vol.II, p.730.

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