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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Folkestone and the Medway c.1821-2 > Folkestone Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant Views with a Bridge, Possibly near Oxford c.1821-2

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant Views with a Bridge, Possibly near Oxford’ c.1821-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Verso:
Distant Views with a Bridge, Possibly near Oxford c.1821–2
D17208
Turner Bequest CXCVIII 1a
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 113 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These drawings have been made with the page turned vertically. Turner swiftly records two impressions side by side. The sketch on the left comprises largely indiscernible markings, possibly demonstrating an undulating landscape with agricultural trappings such as a field boundary and a town in the distance. The drawing on the right represents a distant view of a town with a bridge in the foreground, possibly Rochester. The same bridge seems possibly to be depicted on the inside front cover of the sketchbook (D40685), which might locate it at Oxford.
Additional presumed or identified views of Oxford and the surrounding area can be found on the inside front cover, and on folios 1 recto, 2 recto and verso, 5 recto, 17 recto, and 87 verso–88 recto (D40685, D17207, D17209–D17210, D17214, D17234, D17356–D17357).
Technical notes:
As highlighted by Finberg, the page has been partially torn away and since made up with similar paper.1 The dimensions of the surviving original page are about 113 x 140 mm.

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.604.

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘Distant Views with a Bridge, Possibly near Oxford c.1821–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-distant-views-with-a-bridge-possibly-near-oxford-r1184482, accessed 20 May 2024.