Joseph Mallord William Turner

Finberg suggested1 that this drawing shows London Bridge, but the much lower and more regular sequence of arches indicates a different structure, and one probably not in the metropolis. The fine eighteenth-century Skerton Bridge at Lancaster, built by Thomas Harrison of Chester in 1783–8, might have attracted Turner’s attention as he passed through the town on his way to or from Kirby Lonsdale, but its proportions are again perhaps too grand. The somewhat unusual technique of soft pencil is comparable to that employed in drawings of Caernarvon Castle later in this book (see folios 49 verso–52 recto; D02069–D02074), and it seems likely that the bridge is a Welsh one.

Verso:

Blank; washed with a pale blue-grey ground.