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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?New Bridge, Gunnislake, or Horsebridge and the Royal Inn on the River Tamar 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?New Bridge, Gunnislake, or Horsebridge and the Royal Inn on the River Tamar’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 131 Recto:
?New Bridge, Gunnislake, or Horsebridge and the Royal Inn on the River Tamar 1814
D09637
Turner Bequest CXXXII 131
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘131’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 131’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk originally reproduced this drawing without disputing Finberg’s Gunnislake identification, but in discussing it and several other views (folios 117 verso, 123 recto and 125 recto; D09611, D09622, D09626) they noted that ‘Cornish granite bridges ... are remarkably similar in design’ and suggest that as well as New Bridge at Gunnislake, Turner probably drew Greystone Bridge and Horsebridge,1 a few miles up the Tamar. They later identified the buildings on the left as the former Royal Oak inn;2 however, this building stands some distance up the old Tavistock road, in a direct line from the west end of the bridge.
This view may rather be of Horsebridge, about two miles up the Tamar south of Endsleigh Cottage (see folios 129 verso, 130 recto and 130 verso opposite (D09634–D09636) as Turner travelled between there and the Gunnislake/Calstock area, making the building on the left the Royal Inn on the Devon bank, and the general direction of the view to the south-west towards Luckett on the Cornish side.
For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

1
Cook and Kirk 2001, p.29; see modern photographs of Horesebridge and Newbridge, pp.29 and 30 respectively.
2
Cook and Kirk 2009, p.46; see also modern photograph of the inn, p.9.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?New Bridge, Gunnislake, or Horsebridge and the Royal Inn on the River Tamar 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-new-bridge-gunnislake-or-horsebridge-and-the-royal-inn-on-r1147186, accessed 24 April 2024.