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 Trees by the River Thames at Barnes, with Hammersmith Bridge in the Distance; Buildings beyond a Canal Bridge, Possibly in the Midlands c.1827-30

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trees by the River Thames at Barnes, with Hammersmith Bridge in the Distance; Buildings beyond a Canal Bridge, Possibly in the Midlands’ c.1827-30
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Verso:
Trees by the River Thames at Barnes, with Hammersmith Bridge in the Distance; Buildings beyond a Canal Bridge, Possibly in the Midlands c.1827–30
D22450
Turner Bequest CCXL 66a
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Canal’ top centre, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are two sketches here, both of which extend across folio 67 recto opposite (D22451). Below, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is a view of the wooded banks of the River Thames with Hammersmith Bridge in the distance to the north-west. As discussed under folio 58 verso (D22434), where other Hammersmith views are mentioned, Turner’s studies of the bridge seem to have a rather provisional air, and may show it still under construction before its October 1827 opening.
Above, made with the pages turned the other way up, is a view of a bridge with at least three arches, with various buildings beyond, including what may be a church tower with a cupola (on the other page). Turner indicates that the foreground is a ‘Canal’, and it is possible that this is a later study, made on the 1830 tour of the Midlands for which Turner used most of the rest of this sketchbook.

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Trees by the River Thames at Barnes, with Hammersmith Bridge in the Distance; Buildings beyond a Canal Bridge, Possibly in the Midlands c.1827–30 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-trees-by-the-river-thames-at-barnes-with-hammersmith-bridge-r1148600, accessed 26 April 2024.