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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > London Bridge and Portsmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Coffer-Dams and Piledrivers on the River Thames above Old London Bridge, with St Magnus the Martyr's Church and the Monument; Southwark Bridge with St Paul's Cathedral 1824

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coffer-Dams and Piledrivers on the River Thames above Old London Bridge, with St Magnus the Martyr's Church and the Monument; Southwark Bridge with St Paul's Cathedral’ 1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 24 Recto:
Coffer-Dams and Piledrivers on the River Thames above Old London Bridge, with St Magnus the Martyr’s Church and the Monument; Southwark Bridge with St Paul’s Cathedral 1824
D17958
Turner Bequest CCVI 24
Pencil on white wove paper, 100 x 160 mm
Watermark ‘1821’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘white sail [?agin] Blue [?dun] sky’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘24’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCVI – 24’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The full width of Old London Bridge is shown across this page and folio 23 verso opposite (D17957), looking east from upstream, with the Monument and the tower of St Magnus the Martyr on the other page, and the shot tower (now gone) on the south bank towards the right here. Also on this page are piledrivers for the ongoing construction of the coffer-dams out of which the piers of the bridge’s replacement would rise. Work had begun in March 1824, as discussed under folio 22 recto (D17954), and Turner seems to have taken the opportunity to revisit the works on 9 November, Lord Mayor’s Day; see also the sketches on folios 23 recto and 25 recto (D17956, D17960). At the top right on the present page is a small view in the other direction, with St Paul’s Cathedral to the north-west beyond the wide arches of Southwark Bridge.
As well Old London Bridge, the drawings between folios 20 verso and 34 verso (D40967, D17979) include rapid studies and notes of barges, flags, costumes and bridges along the River Thames, and appear to record or relate to that occasion, as discussed in the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Coffer-Dams and Piledrivers on the River Thames above Old London Bridge, with St Magnus the Martyr’s Church and the Monument; Southwark Bridge with St Paul’s Cathedral 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-coffer-dams-and-piledrivers-on-the-river-thames-above-old-r1172676, accessed 25 April 2024.