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

Finberg titles this page, ‘Bridge, with houses on side of river’.1 In light of the topographic focus of the sketchbook, it seems likely that the view describes a scene on the River Medway in Kent, however the identification remains tentative. The subjects illustrated on almost every page of this book are identified or presumed sites along the Kentish waterway, but that is not to say that the present page has not deviated from the theme. A weir appears to stretch across the river in the foreground, the current of which flows towards Turner. At far left, a church tower is rendered with a light hand, adjacent with the gutter, and the buildings in the foreground have the appearance of houses and perhaps water mills. At top right, a second sketch makes a frontal study of dwellings, presumably part of the grouping displayed at left in the main prospect.

A watercolour in the South Wales sketchbook of 1798 describes Aylesford Bridge over the Medway (Tate D00634; Turner Bequest XXVI 76). A sketch in the same book demonstrates the proximity of this bridge to buildings and a church, in much the same way as the present prospect (Tate D00635; Turner Bequest XXVI 77). This connection is tenuous however, and the identification of the present page remains uncertain.