Joseph Mallord William Turner

Most of the eight or so studies here were made with the page turned vertically, and separated by pencil lines. At the top left is the exception; inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the rapid landscape sketch shows buildings above a valley, with two illegible words to the left and possibly one or two more within the drawing. The subject is possibly Bridgnorth, as with other sketches on this page, the general subject was identified as such 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,1 where ‘a limestone crag, probably Ilam Tor’ was suggested as one of the subjects, possibly in an attempt to read Turner’s note. Ilam Rock is in the Peak District, the subject of much of Turner’s work in this sketchbook (see the Introduction), though there seems no particular reason to assume that it is represented on this page.

At the top right are the leaning ruins of Bridgnorth Castle, with St Mary Magdalene’s Church beyond to the north-east. Across the middle of the page is a view south down to the bridge on the River Severn from the churchyard of St Leonard’s. The two slight sketches below may be variations. At the bottom are three views of the tower of St Leonard’s, which was substantially rebuilt in the Victorian period.2 For other views of Bridgnorth, see under folio 1 recto (D22151).