Joseph Mallord William Turner Barnstaple Bridge 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Recto:
Barnstaple Bridge 1814
D09550
Turner Bequest CXXXII 66
Turner Bequest CXXXII 66
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘16’ left of centre below bridge
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘66’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 66’ bottom right
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘16’ left of centre below bridge
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘66’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 66’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1997
Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, Tate Gallery, London, February–June 1997, Southampton City Art Gallery, June–September 1997 (40, reproduced, as ‘Barnstaple Bridge’, 1813).
2006
Light into Colour: Turner in the South West, Tate St Ives, January–May 2006, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, May–August 2006 (not in catalogue).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.374, CXXXII 66, as ‘Bideford Bridge’.
1997
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.58–9 no.40, reproduced, 92 note 2 under no.40, as ‘Barnstaple Bridge’. 1813.
Eric Shanes has recognised this as a view of Barnstaple Bridge, with its sixteen arches over the River Taw as indicated by Turner’s inscription, which Finberg misidentified as the twenty-four-arched bridge at nearby Bideford.1 At the top right is what appears to be a brief continuation of buildings, boats and trees from the right of the main sketch. Shanes relates the sketch to a watercolour study (Tate D25443; Turner Bequest CCLXIII) with a sixteen-arched bridge juxtaposed with a spire and a boat under construction to the right, apparently taken from the half-page sketch on folio 70 verso (D09555). The drawings in between, on folios 67 recto, 68 recto, 69 recto and 70 recto (D09551–D09554), noted by Finberg as the ‘same bridge’ are therefore also identifiable as of Barnstaple Bridge and its surroundings. The two drawings of a similar bridge on folio 79 recto and verso (D09564, D09565) do indeed, as Finberg suggested, show Bideford, as the latter sketch is annotated ‘24’.2
The present page was exhibited in Light into Colour: Turner in the South West at St Ives and Plymouth in 2006.3
Shanes 1997, pp.59, 92 note 2 under no.40; for the watercolour, see p.58 no.39, reproduced (colour).
Sketchbook noted in ‘List of Works’ in Sam Smiles, Light into Colour: Turner in the South West, exhibition catalogue, Tate St Ives 2006, p.55, but folio not specified; page reproduced on exhibition microsite, Tate, accessed 10 June 2014, http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/exhibition/light-colour-turner-south-west/light-colour-landscape-art/light-0 .
Verso:
Blank
Matthew Imms
June 2014
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Barnstaple Bridge 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www