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 Lickey 1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Birmingham ?from Lickey’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Verso:
Birmingham ?from Lickey 1830
D22003
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 16a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘rnard | 20’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The buildings on the skyline here are in a similar juxtaposition as shown in the sketches on folios 14 verso–15 recto (D21999, D22000), inscribed ‘Monument Lane’ (in Lickey, south-west of Birmingham, as confirmed by Dr Bernard Richards as part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge).1 The dome of St Philip’s Church (later Birmingham Cathedral) is seen on the skyline to the left of centre.
The subject had been identified as ‘B’ham’ by the watercolour and Turner scholar C.F. Bell (died 1966) in undated manuscript notes in a copy of Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.2 For other views of Birmingham, see under folio 3 verso (D21980).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.
2
C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.II, p.729.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Birmingham ?from 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-lickey-r1148645, accessed 20 April 2024.