Lancaster, with the Aqueduct

1816

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Yorkshire 5 Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 173 x 260 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D11585
Turner Bequest CXLVIII 36

Catalogue entry

This is the left part of a double-page spread continued to the right on folio 10 recto (D11583; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 35, now bound opposite), recording Lancaster from the north, taken from the Halton road looking over the aqueduct with the new bridge, castle and church in the distance. Turner sketched a quick first impression of the same scene from a viewpoint slightly further to the left in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11167; Turner Bequest CXLV 82a). The present writer has dated these sketches to Wednesday 7 August 1816.

The Lune Aqueduct, designed by John Rennie and begun in 1794, was the largest of its kind in the country. Turner sketched it at about the time of its first opening in 1797 in the North of England sketchbook (Tate D01067; Turner Bequest XXXV 65).

Finberg did not notice the association of this page with his folio 35 (D11583), but this had been recognised and the book rebound accordingly prior to the present writer’s 1984 book.

Eric Shanes has debated a possible connection of this sketch to a colour study (Tate D25183; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 61), concluding however that the subjects were different.

David Hill
May 2009

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