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

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this drawing shows the view north-west to Ladybridge, west of Tamworth Castle, on the left, with St Editha’s Church on the right, with what appears to be an earlier bridge where the modern Bolebridge Street crossing now runs. The latter forms the eastern sector of a road system which also crosses the river a little to the west along Ankerdrive. These and other developments obscure the view. Turner’s inscription ‘6 4 3’ above the church indicates the sequence of windows along the corresponding sections of its clerestory.

There are related drawings on folio 56 verso opposite (D22080; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 55a), and on folios 57 verso–58 recto (D22082–D22083; CCXXXVIII 55c–56). For Turner’s England and Wales watercolour and other views of Tamworth, see under folio 52 verso (D22072; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 51c).

Technical notes:

Finberg noted: ‘This was a loose unnumbered leaf, but it appears to have belonged here originally.’1 This side and the verso (D22082; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 55c) are numbered in red ink, presumably by Finberg, rather than in Ruskin’s blue ink on the other leaves.