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 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Bridge in a Wooded Valley, Probably in Yorkshire or Devon 1814-16

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Bridge in a Wooded Valley, Probably in Yorkshire or Devon’ 1814-16
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Recto:
A Bridge in a Wooded Valley, Probably in Yorkshire or Devon 1814–16
D09863
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 62
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1811’ (lower part of date trimmed at edge of leaf)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘62’ bottom right (very faint)
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 62’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Most of the views in this sketchbook are identifiable as Devon or Yorkshire subjects, but the lack of landmarks other than the bridge with at least three shallow arches in the distance makes this drawing difficult to place. There appear to be cattle and at least one horse in the shallows in the foreground. In Finberg’s admittedly arbitrary 1909 paginated sequence, this sketch falls between Yorkshire subjects among a group comprising both Devon and Yorkshire subjects which had previously been mounted (see the Concordance in the sketchbook’s Introduction). The drawing is upside down in terms of the sketchbook’s current foliation.
Technical notes:
There is slight, rippled staining to the centre and left.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscription by John Ruskin in red ink ‘932’ bottom left

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Bridge in a Wooded Valley, Probably in Yorkshire or Devon 1814–16 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-bridge-in-a-wooded-valley-probably-in-yorkshire-or-devon-r1147416, accessed 20 April 2024.