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 ... > Mortlake and Pulborough Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Scenes in the Arun Valley, with Stopham Bridge 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Scenes in the Arun Valley, with Stopham Bridge’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
?Scenes in the Arun Valley, with Stopham Bridge 1825
D18753
Turner Bequest CCXIII 26
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 113 mm
Part watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Children yoked to [?furze] cart’, ‘Sheep’ and ‘[?lying out of the Sun]’ towards top, ‘[?wy...] Sandy’ centre left, ‘Park [?Mount]’ ‘Sheep’ and ‘River’ below, and ‘Stoton or Storton’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘26’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIII – 26’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned vertically, there are three views here, separated by horizontal pencil lines, and each annotated in turn. The upper two may be scenes in the valley of the meandering River Arun, seen on preceding pages. The bottom one, showing the foreshortened zigzag cutwaters of a medieval bridge, may show Stopham Bridge (Turner’s ‘Stoton or Storton’), on the Arun between Fittleworth and Pulborough, both of which appear on earlier pages. The bridge is now by-passed by a modern one, and trees around it make a match to Turner’s view difficult to confirm.
The sequence of sketches between folio 17 verso (D18736) and (apparently) this one, and possibly also the verso (D18754), comprises Sussex subjects in the vicinity of Petworth. For a note on Lord Egremont, Petworth, and Turner’s work there, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Scenes in the Arun Valley, with Stopham Bridge 1825 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-scenes-in-the-arun-valley-with-stopham-bridge-r1172875, accessed 20 September 2024.