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 An Industrial ?Midlands Town 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An Industrial ?Midlands Town’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 86 Recto:
An Industrial ?Midlands Town 1830
D22138
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 84
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Inscribed by Turner ‘[?Reeds]’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘84’ towards bottom left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 84’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this is a version of the upper view on folio 85 verso opposite (D22137; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 83a). It shows what seems to be the west end and tower of a Gothic church, seen from the south-west, set on an eminence with houses below, another spire beyond, a low church tower and two tall industrial chimney stacks (one of which is issuing smoke in the version on the opposite page); these last features are what prompt a Midlands identification in the context of the known subjects in this sketchbook. The note, apparently of ‘Reeds’, in the foreground suggests a riverside viewpoint. The fragmentary sketches on folio 88 verso (D22142; CCXXXVIII 86a) appear to show the same town.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘An Industrial ?Midlands Town 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-an-industrial-midlands-town-r1148779, accessed 27 April 2024.