Walton Bridge: Study for ‘Walton Bridges’

1805

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Thames, from Reading to Walton Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 259 x 367 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D05927
Turner Bequest XCV 23

Catalogue entry

A left-hand page from the sketchbook, this leaf must have formed a double-page spread with Tate D05929 Turner Bequest XCV 25, together setting out the composition of the painting Walton Bridges possibly exhibited in Turner’s Gallery in 1806 (the Loyd Collection).1 Variant composition studies, one closer to the picture, also from the sketchbook are Tate D05926; Turner Bequest XCV 22; see note to these for their relationship to contemporary sketches in the Hesperides (2) sketchbook (Tate D05845–D05904; D40637; D41506; Turner Bequest XCIV). Here, Turner has drawn the two bridges with the house and tollbooth on the left; D05929 extends the view to the right to include St Mary’s Church among trees. Both leaves have splashes of oil or paint and thumb or fingerprints indicating use in the studio while Turner was at work on the picture, but there is no reason to suppose that they were not first sketched on the spot.

Butlin and Joll 1984, p.47–8 no.60 (pl.70).

Verso:

See D40382.

David Blayney Brown
February 2009

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