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

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the east end Holy Trinity Church, Camp Hill, Bordesley, south-east of Birmingham, is shown in the distance from the north-east, with trees beside the Warwick and Birmingham Canal (now part of Grand Union Canal) on the right. The Gothic church was designed by Francis Goodwin and consecrated in 1823,1 and thus relatively new at the time of Turner’s visit. The bridge on the left is possibly the one carrying the Coventry road; the pinnacles of the church can still be seen from there above an intervening railway viaduct. There is a thumbnail sketch of a similar view in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook, as well as a full-page view of the church with Birmingham beyond (respectively Tate D22024, D22025; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 27, 27a).

For other Birmingham views, see under folio 3 recto (D22327).

Technical notes:

This leaf is affected by the extensive pale brown, mottled staining which extends throughout this particular gathering (folios 31–42; D22379–D22402) and also folios 30 and 43 recto and verso (D22377, D22378, D22403, D22404), as discussed in the Technical notes to the sketchbook’s Introduction.