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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Isle of Wight Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Hampton Court Bridge, with a Thames Barge c.1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hampton Court Bridge, with a Thames Barge’ c.1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Recto:
Hampton Court Bridge, with a Thames Barge c.1827
D20793
Turner Bequest CCXXVII 38
Pencil on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 110 x 185 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘38’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXVII – 38’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. It is a rougher version of the view on folio 42 verso (D20798; Turner Bequest CCXXVII 40a), under which the subject is discussed.
Technical notes:
Turner has utilised the fortuitously dark area of the grey wash with which the paper had been prepared (like all the rectos in this sketchbook), using heavy tonal pencil hatching to emphasise the sense of the shadowy structure of the bridge. Towards the bottom right a contrastingly delicate horizontal line of rippling reflection has been scratched through the ground to expose the white paper, and isolated small areas have been rubbed or scratched out to give variety to the loosely indicated boats and figures below.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Hampton Court Bridge, with a Thames Barge c.1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-hampton-court-bridge-with-a-thames-barge-r1182653, accessed 26 April 2024.