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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Birmingham ?from Monument Lane, Lickey 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Birmingham ?from Monument Lane, Lickey’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Recto:
Birmingham ?from Monument Lane, Lickey 1830
D22000
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 15
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Monument Lane’ and ‘[?Boat Building]’ right of centre, descending vertically below secondary drawing
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘15’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 15’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main view continues to the left across the full extent of folio 14 verso (D21999). The town is seen to the north-east, apparently from the vicinity of Monument Lane, Lickey, with the dome of St Philip’s Church (later Birmingham Cathedral) at the centre of the main view on the opposite page and again as the focus of the smaller repetition which Turner made towards the outer edge of the present page, with the sketchbook turned vertically. As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has deciphered Turner’s inscriptions as ‘Monument Lane’ and possibly ‘Boat Building’.
For other views of Birmingham, see under folio 3 verso (D21980).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Birmingham ?from Monument Lane, Lickey 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-birmingham-from-monument-lane-lickey-r1148642, accessed 11 May 2024.