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 New Bridge, Gunnislake, from the Tamar Valley 1814

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘New Bridge, Gunnislake, from the Tamar Valley’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 125 Recto:
New Bridge, Gunnislake, from the Tamar Valley 1814
D09626
Turner Bequest CXXXII 125
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘125’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 125’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk first reproduced this drawing without disputing Finberg’s identification, but in discussing it and several other views (folios 117 verso, 123 recto and 131 recto; D09611, D09622, 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 noted that Turner ‘seems to be looking upstream’ towards Gunnislake;2 in the absence of a stronger claimant, there seems little reason to dispute this.
For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

1
Cook and Kirk 2001, p.29; see modern photographs of Horesebridge and Newbridge, pp.29 and 30 respectively.
2
Cook and Kirk 2009, p.44.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘New Bridge, Gunnislake, from the Tamar Valley 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-new-bridge-gunnislake-from-the-tamar-valley-r1147175, accessed 26 April 2024.