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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Berwick Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Manchester, Blackfriars Bridge 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Manchester, Blackfriars Bridge’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Recto:
Manchester, Blackfriars Bridge 1831
D25706
Turner Bequest CCLXV 36
Pencil on white wove paper, 59 x 96 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘36’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXV 36’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts cotton mills on the banks of the River Irwell at Manchester. The bridge at the right of the sketch is probably Blackfriar’s, which stands near to Manchester Cathedral (in Turner’s day, the Collegiate Church; folio 34; D25702). The church towers beyond may be those on the Salford side of the river, perhaps Trinity Church, and St Stephens. For further sketches made around this point, see folio 34 verso (D25703).
This sketch was reproduced in Gerald Wilkinson’s book, Turner’s Colour Sketches 1820–34,1 but is identified here for the first time.

Thomas Ardill
September 2011

1
Wilkinson 1975, p.67 reproduced.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Manchester, Blackfriars Bridge 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-manchester-blackfriars-bridge-r1134070, accessed 19 April 2024.