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 the South-West 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Birmingham from the South-West’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 19 Recto:
Birmingham from the South-West 1830
D22008
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 19
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘St Martins’ above spire top centre, and ‘w[...]’ towards top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘19’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 19’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main view along the top continues to the left across folio 18 verso opposite (D22007), and to the right onto the verso of the present leaf and folio 20 recto (D22009, D22010). There is a series of smaller views running across the foot of both pages.
As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has compared this prospect with The South West View of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, a 1731 engraving by the Buck brothers.1 From left to right on the skyline in the present section of the drawing are the spire of Christ Church (demolished in 1899), the dome of St Philip’s Church (later Birmingham Cathedral), with the spire of St Martin’s-in-the-Bullring to their right in the middle distance; the latter is annotated as such by Turner.
The subject had been identified as Birmingham by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) and the watercolour and Turner scholar C.F. Bell (died 1966) in undated manuscript notes in copies 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
A.J. Finberg, undated MS notes in a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.II, p.730; C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in another copy at the same location, vol.II, p.730.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Birmingham from the South-West 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-the-south-west-r1148650, accessed 25 April 2024.