Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner shows the south side of the narrow, isolated bridge over the River Tavy west of Buckland Monachorum, with its pointed main arch in plain view and its smaller, more rounded one just visible beyond foliage on the right. The scene remains much the same today. The sketch is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation.

The sketchbook contains numerous views in and around the Tamar and Tavy valleys between folios 46 verso (D10265; CXXXVII 43a) and 58 verso (D10289; CXXXVII 55a), probably made in the summer of 1813 in conjunction with those in the smaller Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CXXXII). The latter is covered in the section of the present catalogue specifically devoted to Turner’s 1813 visit to Devon, where further information on Turner’s work in the locality will be found.