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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Birmingham and Coventry Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Coventry from the North-East 1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coventry from the North-East’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Verso:
Coventry from the North-East 1830
D22350
Turner Bequest CCXL 16a
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Partial watermark ‘er | 27’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Eric Shanes confirmed Finberg’s identification of the subject as Coventry,1 in general relation to Turner’s watercolour Coventry of about 1832 (British Museum, London),2 engraved in 1833 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impression: T06105).
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this view continues a little onto folio 17 recto opposite (D22351). The juxtaposition of Coventry’s three spires (Christchurch in the distance beyond St Michael’s and Holy Trinity from left to right) indicates a view from the north-east, from an area now much changed. The foreground is the valley of the River Sherbourne, long since covered over, and the viewpoint appears to be in the vicinity of the Whitefriars section of the modern Ringway flyover.3
For nearby views, see under folio 13 verso (D22344) and for other Coventry subjects, see under folio 9 verso (D22336).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Shanes 1979, p.156.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.399 no.849, reproduced.
3
See successive historical street maps, [Rob Orland], Historic Coventry, accessed 1 July 2013, http://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/covmaps/allmaps.php.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Coventry from the North-East 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, 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-coventry-from-the-north-east-r1148500, accessed 26 April 2024.