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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Shipping in the Pool of London; Old London Bridge with Southwark Cathedral Beyond ?1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Recto:
Shipping in the Pool of London; Old London Bridge with Southwark Cathedral Beyond ?1824
D17862
Turner Bequest CCV 15
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 162 mm
Part watermark ‘lls | 1’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘15’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCV – 15’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are two studies of essentially the same subject here. At the top is a view up the River Thames past shipping towards the barely indicated Old London Bridge, with the tower of Southwark Cathedral to the south-west. Below is the same view without shipping, with the bridge shown in a little more detail, albeit still slight.
More than half the drawings in this sketchbook show the river around the bridge, and are likely to date from 1824; see the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Shipping in the Pool of London; Old London Bridge with Southwark Cathedral Beyond ?1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-shipping-in-the-pool-of-london-old-london-bridge-with-r1172573, accessed 26 April 2024.