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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Great Torrington and the Torridge Valley with Taddiport Bridge 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 83 Verso:
Great Torrington and the Torridge Valley with Taddiport Bridge 1814
D09570
Turner Bequest CXXXII 83a
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by Turner ‘Torrington’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is west down the valley of the River Torridge, from high on the slopes of Great Torrington Common. The tower at the top right, as seen in other drawings here, appears to be the gazebo or belvedere which still stands beside the bowling green on the site of the medieval castle off Castle Street,1 while Taddiport Bridge is shown far below in the opposite corner.
There is a similar view on folio 84 recto opposite (D09571). For other views of the town on adjacent pages, see under folio 80 recto (D09566).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

1
See Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, Devon, The Buildings of England, revised ed., New Haven and London 2002, p.463.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Great Torrington and the Torridge Valley with Taddiport Bridge 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-great-torrington-and-the-torridge-valley-with-taddiport-r1147117, accessed 29 March 2024.