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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Manchester, from near Blackfriar's Bridge 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
Manchester, from near Blackfriar’s Bridge 1831
D25704
Turner Bequest CCLXV 35
Pencil on white wove paper, 59 x 96 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘35’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXV 35’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although this sketch appears to be continuous with the drawing on the opposite page of the sketchbook (folio 34 verso; D25703) the two do not appear to show a single view. Instead it may be the view in the opposite direction from the same vantage point. This would make it a view roughly north along the River Irwell from the old bridge that preceded Victoria Bridge near Manchester’s Collegiate Church (now Cathedral). A jumble of vertical lines represent the factories or cotton mills that lined the river at this point. See folio 34 verso for references to similar views elsewhere in the sketchbook.

Thomas Ardill
September 2011

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Manchester, from near Blackfriar’s Bridge 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-manchester-from-near-blackfriars-bridge-r1134068, accessed 26 April 2024.