Joseph Mallord William Turner

?Greystone Bridge, on the River Tamar

1814

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 90 × 152 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D09619
Turner Bequest CXXXII 121 a

Catalogue entry

Finberg tentatively suggested that Turner’s rather cramped inscription reads ‘Beach Heath’, then attempted to interpret this as meaning ‘Becky Fall’.1 Becky Falls are on a tributary of the River Bovey, north-west of Bovey Tracy on the east side of Dartmoor. Although Turner did apparently draw at nearby Chudleigh (see under folio 2 recto; D09483), there does not seem to be any particular likelihood that Becky Falls is what Turner has written here.
The bridge and its setting suggest the Tamar Valley, west of Dartmoor, as seen on nearby pages. Greystone Bridge, south-east of Launceston (see under folio 106 recto; D09596) may be a possibility; compare the bridge on folio 122 recto opposite (D09622). For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.375.

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