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, Houses and Church Tower 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Manchester, Houses and Church Tower’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Recto:
Manchester, Houses and Church Tower 1831
D25708
Turner Bequest CCLXV 37
Pencil on white wove paper, 59 x 96 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘37’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXV 37’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This church tower, seen above factory buildings, was sketched from (or from nearby) Blackfriar’s Bridge over the River Irwell at Manchester. It may be visible in some of the other sketches that Turner made at this point in the city (see folio 34 verso; D25703), and can be seen in an engraving by James Parry, Black Friar’s Bridge, Manchester, 1821 (Manchester City Art Galleries) where a church tower with a steeple can also be seen in the distance.1 By comparison with an engraving in Joseph Aston’s A Picture of Manchester, this church may be St Mary’s Church, between Deansgate and the River Irwell, making this a view looking south.2
For a full list of Turner’s sketches at Manchester, see folio 34 (D25702).

Thomas Ardill
September 2011

1
Another almost identical composition by William Westall was engraved by Edward Finden and published by Charles Tilt for Great Britain Illustrated, 1830.
2
Joseph Aston, A Picture of Manchester, third edition, Manchester 1826, p.88 reproduced as ‘Saint Mary’s Church.’

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Manchester, Houses and Church Tower 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-houses-and-church-tower-r1134072, accessed 19 April 2024.