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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Cockermouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Calder Bridge 1809

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Calder Bridge’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Recto:
Calder Bridge 1809
D07575
Turner Bequest CX 33
Pencil on white laid paper, 116 x 185 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Calder Bridge’ bottom left, ‘stones, ‘red rock’, ‘white’, ‘light stone’, ‘grass light’, ‘ray of light above the cottage’, ‘Rainy sky’, ‘broken Bank’, ‘rock ducks feeding’ ‘water dark’ and ‘Wheel wright leading a cart | painted red’ from left to right within image
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘33’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CX 33’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner passed through Calder Bridge on his way south from Whitehaven and Egremont, as described in the itinerary on folio 1 of this sketchbook (D07572). The small packhorse bridge across Friar Gill is a short walk along a footpath from Calder Abbey, for which see folio 31 (D07572), and had been built for the monks. Later, it was used to carry iron ore from Ennerdale to smithies in the fells for smelting. This careful inscribed drawing served as the basis for Calder Bridge, Cumberland (private collection)1 exhibited at Turner’s Gallery in 1810 and again in 1812. It found no purchaser there and remained on Turner’s hands until he sold it to Elhanan Bicknell probably in March 1844. As Butlin and Joll observe, the notes about wheelwrights must refer to the activities in the barn or similar building on the right of the picture.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.76–7 no.106 (pl.113).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
August 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Calder Bridge 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2009, 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-calder-bridge-r1135691, accessed 19 April 2024.