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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Kenilworth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tamworth Castle, St Editha's Church and Ladybridge 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tamworth Castle, St Editha's Church and Ladybridge’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 53 Recto:
Tamworth Castle, St Editha’s Church and Ladybridge 1830
D22073
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 52
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘R Ba | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘52’ bottom left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 52’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are two views of Tamworth’s castle, church and bridge; the upper is from the south, with Ladybridge to the left and the church to the right of the castle, whereas the lower is from further west, with the bridge in the foreground and the pinnacles of the church tower to the left of the castle.
As Eric Shanes has noted,1 the upper sketch informed Turner’s England and Wales watercolour of Tamworth, discussed under folio 52 verso opposite (D22072; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 51c), the primary source, under which other views are noted.
1
Shanes 1979, p.156; and Shanes 1990, p.217, 285 note 158.
Technical notes:
There a small splash or dab of dusky pink watercolour at the bottom left, perhaps a test stroke for the colour of the silhouetted castle in the England and Wales design.

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Tamworth Castle, St Editha’s Church and Ladybridge 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, 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-tamworth-castle-st-edithas-church-and-ladybridge-r1148714, accessed 20 April 2024.