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

Eric Shanes has identified this colour study as showing Tamworth, Staffordshire, from the south, based on a page with two variant pencil studies in the 1830 Kenilworth sketchbook (Tate D22074; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 52a), and suggests it as an undeveloped design for Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales.1 A watercolour showing a nearer view of Tamworth Castle, Staffordshire of about 1830 (private collection),2 was engraved in 1832 for England and Wales (Tate impression: T04598), and there are two identified colour studies relating to it (Tate D25268, D25306; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 146, 184).

As described by Shanes, the present composition shows the three arches of the River Tame bridge in the middle distance, carrying the old main road (Watling Street) west to Fazeley, with the aqueduct carrying the Coventry Canal over the river beyond; on the horizon is the pale silhouette of St Editha’s Church, in the centre of Tamworth, although there is little to indicate Tamworth Castle, shown a little to its west in the pencil sketches, which show other details not incorporated in the colour sketch.3 The valley beyond the bridge is now obscured by trees.

See also the introductions to the present subsection of identified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this work has been assigned.

Technical notes:
Shanes notes that Peter Bower ‘has surmised’ that the sheet, albeit without a watermark, dates from 1828.1

Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram above ‘CCLXIII – 61’; and in pencil ‘AB 93 P’ and ‘CCLXIII 61’ bottom right.