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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Severn Valley, Chester and Peak District ... > Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Grosvenor Bridge on the River Dee; Chester Castle ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Grosvenor Bridge on the River Dee; Chester Castle’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Recto:
Grosvenor Bridge on the River Dee; Chester Castle ?1831
D22177
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 15
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘15’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 15’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In undated manuscript notes, A.J. Finberg (died 1939) changed his incorrect 1909 Turner Bequest Inventory identification of this subject from Shrewsbury to ‘Chester’, as did the watercolour and Turner scholar C.F. Bell (died 1966).1 As Ian Warrell has noted, Grosvenor Bridge is shown twice:2 at the top right, as part of a view north-east across the River Dee with Chester Castle above it, as on folio 14 verso opposite (D22176); and at the bottom left, where the viewpoint appears to be below the castle, looking west to the bridge.
At the bottom right is another slight view of the castle, apparently from the south-west, and somewhat confused by its overlapping with a brief continuation of buildings and trees from the view of Shrewsbury on folio 14 recto (D22175), to the right of the vertical pencil division near the middle of this page. For other views of Chester, see under D22176.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
A.J. Finberg, undated MS notes in a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.II, p.734; C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in another copy at the same location, vol.II, p.734.
2
Ian Warrell, notes from 1993 and later in Tate catalogue files.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Grosvenor Bridge on the River Dee; Chester Castle ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, 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-grosvenor-bridge-on-the-river-dee-chester-castle-r1148823, accessed 23 April 2024.