This urban subject focuses on a bridge with two large arches, surrounded by spires, towers and chimneys. The scene is unidentified, but may be Manchester; for other views in this sketchbook see under folio 12 recto (
D22171). Thomas Ardill has suggested that Turner rode on the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway as he approached Scotland in 1831; see his Introduction to the ‘Scotland 1831’ section of the present catalogue.
1 It is possible that this bridge may be the one carrying the railway over the River Irwell, just west of the original Manchester terminus on Liverpool Road (now part of Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry);
2 the original bridge survives, now closely flanked by two others. An anonymous painting of about 1830 of
The ‘Rocket’ (Liverpool and Manchester Railway Train) Crossing the Bridge over the River Irwell shows that structure in its original setting (National Trust, Greenway, Devon). What may be the same bridge, possibly with a train, appears in a small drawing on folio 58 verso (
D22258). For another locomotive-like form, see folio 25 recto (
D22194), while a rough view on folio 85 recto (
D22307; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 84) might also show the railway. All of these possibilities are suggested here with reservations, owing to the slightness of the sketches.
