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 Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West; Manchester Cathedral ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West; Manchester Cathedral’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Verso:
Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West; Manchester Cathedral ?1831
D22225
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 40a
Pencil on white wove paper, 191 x 114 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are three sketches on this page, separated by pencil lines. Two were made with the page turned vertically, while the third, towards the gutter, is a continuation of trees from the river scene, perhaps on the Severn, on folio 41 recto opposite (D22226).
Across the middle is a prospect of a tower above steep slopes. Ian Warrell’s suggestion that this is Peveril Castle1 seems correct, in which case it is seen from the west. There is another view from that direction on the opposite page. For other sketches of the castle, Castleton and Peak Cavern, see under folio 1 verso (D22152).
At the top is a view of Manchester Cathedral, then the Collegiate Church, with its series of prominent finials above the nave. The view is to the south-west from the vicinity of what is now Victoria Street in an area much changed, along the River Irwell towards Blackfriars Bridge. There is a view in the opposite direction on folio 12 recto (D22171), under which other Manchester views are mentioned.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
Ian Warrell, notes from 1993 and later in Tate catalogue files.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Trees and Houses ?beside the River Severn; Peveril Castle from the West; Manchester Cathedral ?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-trees-and-houses-beside-the-river-severn-peveril-castle-from-r1148871, accessed 23 April 2024.