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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Scotch Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Hermitage Bridge on the River Bran 1801

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Hermitage Bridge on the River Bran’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 135 Verso:
The Hermitage Bridge on the River Bran 1801
D03173
Turner Bequest LVI 133a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
Partial watermark ‘mott | 97’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the pages turned horizontally, the subject is continued on folio 136 recto opposite (D03174; Turner Bequest LVI 134). Finberg thought that the structure shown here is Rumbling Bridge,1 a little higher upstream on the Bran, but it is more probably the Hermitage Bridge, the same bridge as is shown on subsequent pages. Rumbling Bridge is a much narrower arch, over a deeper ravine than at the Hermitage. Turner has exaggerated the depth here, making the spot look rather similar to the scenery at Rumbling Bridge.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
See Finberg 1909, I, p.148.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Hermitage Bridge on the River Bran 1801 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-hermitage-bridge-on-the-river-bran-r1179369, accessed 02 October 2025.