Joseph Mallord William Turner

Figures on a Wooden Bridge, with Other Figures and Cattle in a Wooded Setting

?1831

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 114 × 191 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D22169
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 11

Catalogue entry

There is perhaps a family group of a man, woman and child on the wooded bridge over a stream towards the left, while there are other figures and cattle to the right near a low two-arched bridge, with gables and chimney stacks beyond. Converging uprights and loosely architectural forms among the trees beyond the first bridge may indicate a church spire and further buildings.
The immediately adjacent identified views are of Worcester on folio 10 verso opposite (D22168) and Bridgnorth on the verso (D22170), so the present subject may be in the vicinity of either or at least in the Severn Valley, but the juxtaposition is not necessarily informative as numerous subjects are scattered through the sketchbook somewhat randomly.
At the centre left, inverted relative to the main drawing, is a slight continuation of the tower of Worcester Cathedral from D22168.
Technical notes:
Rubbing to the surface of the sheet, affecting the drawing, may be owing to the looseness of the sketchbook’s binding between this page, the outer face of one gathering, and D22168, the outer face of another.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

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