Joseph Mallord William Turner

The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: The Marquee beside Old London Bridge, with Construction Work

1825

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Mortlake and Pulborough Sketchbook
Medium
Watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 113 × 187 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D18833
Turner Bequest CCXIII 86 a

Catalogue entry

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation the marquee erected over the coffer-dam around the site of the southernmost pier of the new London Bridge, for the foundation stone ceremony held on the riverbed on 15 June 1825, is shown to the south-east on the right, with Old London Bridge downstream beyond. There appear to be cranes or gantries around further coffer-dams. The view is continued to the left on folio 89 recto (D18834; Turner Bequest CCXIII 87) and to the right on folio 85 verso (D18831).
The ceremony and other studies relating to it at the beginning and end of this sketchbook are discussed in the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

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