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

Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk originally reproduced this drawing, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, without disputing Finberg’s identification, but in discussing it and several other views (folios 123 recto, 125 recto and 131 recto; D09622, D09626, D09637) they noted that ‘Cornish granite bridges ... are remarkably similar in design’ and suggest that as well as New Bridge at Gunnislake, Turner probably drew Greystone Bridge and Horsebridge,1 a few miles up the Tamar. Later they again followed Finberg’s identification, reproducing a print from the Cyrus Redding’s Illustrated Itinerary of the County of Cornwall (London 1842) for comparison.2

At first sight Turner’s drawing seems to show a smaller, more rural bridge, but the viewpoint may have compressed the angle at which the bridge is seen, and the identification may be correct. For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).