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 Tamworth and the River Tame Bridges from near Fazeley, Staffordshire 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tamworth and the River Tame Bridges from near Fazeley, Staffordshire’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 53 Verso:
Tamworth and the River Tame Bridges from near Fazeley, Staffordshire 1830
D22074
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 52a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘R Ba | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Tamworth]’ top left and ‘[...]’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Eric Shanes has identified the two variant sketches as showing Tamworth from the south, relating them to a watercolour study (Tate D25183; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 61) which he proposes as an undeveloped design for Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales.1 For Turner’s England and Wales watercolour and other views of the town, see under folio 52 verso (D22072; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 51c).
As described by Shanes, the sketches here show the three arches of the River Tame bridge carrying the old main road (Watling Street) west to Fazeley, with the aqueduct carrying the Coventry Canal over the river beyond; on the horizon of each is the outline of St Editha’s Church, with Tamworth Castle a little to its west. Other details were not incorporated in the broad colour study. A separate sketch of the bridge, made with the page turned vertically, is at the bottom left;2 the valley beyond is now obscured by trees. There is a sketch with the aqueduct in the foreground on folio 54 verso (D22076; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 53a).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
See Shanes 1997, pp.70, 95, 104.
2
See Shanes 1997, p.70.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Tamworth and the River Tame Bridges from near Fazeley, Staffordshire 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-tamworth-and-the-river-tame-bridges-from-near-fazeley-r1148715, accessed 18 April 2024.