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 Bridgnorth across the River Severn from the East ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bridgnorth across the River Severn from the East’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 80 Verso:
Bridgnorth across the River Severn from the East ?1831
D22298
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 79a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘35’ towards centre left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject was identified as ‘Bridgenorth’ (sic) by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) and the watercolour and Turner scholar C.F. Bell (died 1966) in undated manuscript notes in copies of Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.1 The drawing, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is continued across folio 81 recto opposite (D22299; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 80). On the present page St Leonard’s Church is seen to the north-west above Bridgnorth’s bridge. The uprights at the lower left are probably slight indications of masts.
There is a similar view from a little further north on folio 7 recto (D22161), under which the history of the bridge is described. For other views of Bridgnorth, see under folio 1 recto (D22151).

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.736; C.F. Bell, undated MS notes in another copy at the same location, vol.II, p.736; confirmed by Ian Warrell in notes from 1993 and later in Tate catalogue files.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Bridgnorth across the River Severn from the East ?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-bridgnorth-across-the-river-severn-from-the-east-r1148946, accessed 24 April 2024.