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 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘New Bridge, Gunnislake’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 123 Recto:
New Bridge, Gunnislake 1814
D09622
Turner Bequest CXXXII 123
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Part watermark ‘y Mill | 1812’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘123’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 123’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk first reproduced this drawing without disputing Finberg’s identification, but in discussing it and several other views (folios 117 verso, 125 recto and 131 recto; D09611, D09626, D09637) they note 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. Later they became more positive, identifying the small building at the right-hand (east) end as the toll house, which still stands.2
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.44, reproducing a 1960 photograph of the toll house.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘New Bridge, Gunnislake 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-r1147171, accessed 27 October 2025.