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 and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Wooden Bridge with Thatched Rural Buildings Beyond, Probably in North Devon 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Wooden Bridge with Thatched Rural Buildings Beyond, Probably in North Devon’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
A Wooden Bridge with Thatched Rural Buildings Beyond, Probably in North Devon 1814
D09542
Turner Bequest CXXXII 59
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘w’ on building left of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘59’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 59’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This scene, with a precarious wooden footbridge and thatched cottages or farm buildings beyond, is unidentified, but probably in north Devon from its context in the sketchbook. It may be somewhere north-east of Okehampton (see under folio 43 recto; D09526), as (North) Tawton, about eight miles in that direction, appears to be mentioned on folio 59a (D09543). There seems to be a more substantial bridge in the distance on the right, and the slight drawing on the verso (D09543) may show a different aspect of the same scene.
The building on folio 52 recto (D09535) appears similar, but this may be fortuitous.

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Wooden Bridge with Thatched Rural Buildings Beyond, Probably in North Devon 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-wooden-bridge-with-thatched-rural-buildings-beyond-r1147089, accessed 16 April 2024.