J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bothal, Northumberland: Two Figures on a Bridge over a Stream 1797

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Recto:
Bothal, Northumberland: Two Figures on a Bridge over a Stream 1797
D00943
Turner Bequest XXXIV 36
Pencil on white wove paper, 270 x 210 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Wernesbeck’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘36’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXIV 36’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The stream in this drawing is probably Brock’s Burn, which flows into the River Wansbeck at Bothal, a small village near Morpeth, Northumberland. Harry Madgwick identifies the little belfry of the Church of St Andrew just visible through the trees in the background, and, in front of it, Glebe Cottage (now School Cottage). The church figures again in Turner’s drawing of Bothal Castle on the following page, folio 39 recto (D00944; Turner Bequest XXXIV 37).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Bothal, Northumberland: Two Figures on a Bridge over a Stream 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bothal-northumberland-two-figures-on-a-bridge-over-a-stream-r1150099, accessed 28 March 2024.