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 Barnstaple Bridge 1814

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Barnstaple Bridge’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 68 Recto:
Barnstaple Bridge 1814
D09552
Turner Bequest CXXXII 68
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Part watermark ‘y Mill | 1812’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘68’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 68’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Eric Shanes has recognised the sketch on folio 66 recto (D09550) as a view of Barnstaple Bridge, with its sixteen arches over the River Taw (which Finberg misidentified as the twenty-four-arched bridge at nearby Bideford).1 Shanes relates it to a watercolour study (Tate D25443; Turner Bequest CCLXIII), which also incorporates details from folio 70 verso (D09555). The drawings in between, on this page and folios 67 recto, 69 recto and 70 recto (D09551, D09553, D09554), noted by Finberg as the ‘same bridge’ are therefore also identifiable as of Barnstaple. However, two drawings of a similar bridge on folio 79 recto and verso (D09564, D09565) do indeed, as Finberg suggested, show Bideford, as the latter sketch is annotated ‘24’.2
For other views of Barnstaple, see under D09550.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.374.
2
Shanes 1997, pp.59, 92 note 2 under no.40; for the watercolour, see p.58 no.39, reproduced (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Barnstaple Bridge 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-barnstaple-bridge-r1147099, accessed 20 September 2024.