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 Dudley from the South-East: St Edmund's Church and the Castle 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dudley from the South-East: St Edmund's Church and the Castle’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Verso:
Dudley from the South-East: St Edmund’s Church and the Castle 1830
D22100
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 64a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, Dudley Castle is seen across open ground from the south-east, with St Edmund’s Church below it towards the left. At least one cart and various figures are seen in the foreground. Modern developments make the viewpoint difficult to establish, but a sense of the view is possible from around Watsons Green Road and Wolverton Road on Kates Hill, overlooking Dudley’s Southern Bypass. There are similar views on folio 63 verso opposite (D22094; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 61a) and several subsequent pages.
As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards1 has noted the present variation of the south-eastern prospect as related in particular to the watercolour Dudley, Worcestershire of about 1832 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),2 engraved in 1835 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T05097, T06113, T06114), although the most detailed variation in the sequence, on folios 67 verso–68 recto (D22102, D22103; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 65a, 66) was perhaps the most fruitful source for the background, albeit with the rural foreground replaced by canalside industries.
For other views of Dudley see under folio 23 recto (D22016).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.400 no.858, pl.195.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dudley from the South-East: St Edmund’s Church and the Castle 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-dudley-from-the-south-east-st-edmunds-church-and-the-castle-r1148741, accessed 23 April 2024.