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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Corfe to Dartmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Bridge over the River Dart at Totnes 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Bridge over the River Dart at Totnes’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Recto:
The Bridge over the River Dart at Totnes 1811
D08854
Turner Bequest CXXIV 39
Pencil on white wove paper, 170 x 209 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Totness’ bottom left
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXIV – 39’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner shows the old medieval structure on the east side of Totnes, replaced in 1826 by a three-arched bridge1 which remains the last crossing on the River Dart, still tidal at this point, before the sea some ten miles to the south-east. As he noted on folio 38 recto (D08853), Turner was approaching Totnes from the north by the Newton Abbott road, which runs beside the river, now largely screened by trees at this point.
The town’s northern by-pass now crosses on a modern bridge about half-way towards the old one from this viewpoint, and the east bank of the river is occupied by industrial buildings and a car park. In the sketch on folio 40 recto (D08855), Turner looks to his right from the same spot or nearby to draw the town’s church and castle, up the hill west of the bridge.
1
Nikolaus Pevsner, South Devon, The Buildings of England, Harmondsworth 1952, p.298.
Technical notes:
A long tear from the centre to the right-hand edge has been repaired. There is prominent black offsetting in two parallel lines affecting the drawing towards the top right, apparently from some sort of implement about 37 mm wide with a regularly serrated edge, and a number of associated flecks of black.
Verso:
Blank. There is a small blue stain at the bottom right.

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Bridge over the River Dart at Totnes 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-the-bridge-over-the-river-dart-at-totnes-r1137332, accessed 23 April 2024.