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 A City Barge in the Lord Mayor's Day Pageant on the River Thames Approaching Westminster Bridge 1824

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A City Barge in the Lord Mayor's Day Pageant on the River Thames Approaching Westminster Bridge’ 1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
A City Barge in the Lord Mayor’s Day Pageant on the River Thames Approaching Westminster Bridge 1824
D17974
Turner Bequest CCVI 32
Pencil on white wove paper, 100 x 160 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Wstmr’ top centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘32’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCVI – 32’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
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 the Lord Mayor’s Day procession of 9 November 1824, as discussed in the sketchbook’s Introduction. Here Westminster Bridge is seen from the north-east, with the Palace of Westminster schematically rendered beyond. The river appears empty, but the grouping of small squares to the right presumably indicates flags flying from a City barge.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A City Barge in the Lord Mayor’s Day Pageant on the River Thames Approaching Westminster Bridge 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-a-city-barge-in-the-lord-mayors-day-pageant-on-the-river-r1172692, accessed 09 May 2024.