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 ?Eastcott Bridge on the River Tamar 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Eastcott Bridge on the River Tamar’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 100 Recto:
?Eastcott Bridge on the River Tamar 1814
D09590
Turner Bequest CXXXII 100
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Stone’ bottom left, and ‘Eastc[...]t B’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘100’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 100’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg read the inscription as ‘Eastcourt’,1 which seems feasible, but Turner may have misspelled or misheard the name of Eastcott Wood, on the River Tamar about six miles north of Launceston (see under folio 106 recto; D09596), and about two north of Boyton (see folio 103 recto; D09593). If so, the artist was making a short excursion upriver from Launceston, and apparently went no further.
Bill Harvey, a Devon civil engineer, was involved in the restoration of the current two-arched stone footbridge in Eastcott Wood, noting that local records suggest it may have replaced a wooden bridge with a central pier (possibly as indicated by Turner here) in about 1842.2
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.374.
2
See Bill Harvey, ‘Bridge of the Month No38, Jan 2014: Eastcott Bridge Tetcott’, Arches, accessed 2 June 2014, http://billharvey.typepad.com/BridgeOfTheMonth/2014/Bridge%20of%20the%20Month%20No38.pdf.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Eastcott Bridge on the River Tamar 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-eastcott-bridge-on-the-river-tamar-r1147139, accessed 23 April 2024.