Catalogue entry
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this sketch continues half way across folio 67 verso opposite (
D22102; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 65a). With the ruins of Dudley Castle on the skyline to the right, and the tower and spire of St Edmund’s and St Thomas’s Church to the left, this view from the east apparently shows the old Birmingham road in the foreground,
1 although later developments hamper an equivalent view today.
Of all his many sketches of Dudley (see under folio 23 recto;
D22016), when Turner came to compose his watercolour
Dudley, Worcestershire of about 1832 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),
2 engraved in 1835 for the
Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions:
T05097,
T06113,
T06114), he seems to have used the background from this double-page drawing.
3 He replaced the receding roadway with a canal flanked by industrial buildings, observed elsewhere in the area, their smoke and flames contrasting dramatically with the night sky over the castle and churches.
Dudley and the
England and Wales watercolour are discussed further under
D22016.
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