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: Distant Views 1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Birmingham: Distant Views’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Verso:
Birmingham: Distant Views 1830
D22015
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 22a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The distant skyline towards the top includes spires and a windmill, and what seems to be the dome of St Philip’s Church (later Birmingham Cathedral) at the centre. A separate study towards the bottom appears to show a similar prospect beyond a low foreground of houses and trees. The views are comparable with those of Birmingham from the south-west on folios 18 verso–19 recto (D22007, D22008)
The subject was 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.1 For other views of Birmingham, see under folio 3 verso (D21980).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
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: Distant Views 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-distant-views-r1148656, accessed 27 April 2024.