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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Thames, from Reading to Walton ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Richmond Bridge and Hill 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Richmond Bridge and Hill’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Richmond Bridge and Hill 1805
D05928
Turner Bequest XCV 24
Pencil on white wove paper, 259 x 373 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘24’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XCV 24’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This was a left-hand page from the sketchbook. This view is from the Surrey bank of the River Thames towards James Paine’s bridge, with Richmond Hill culminating in the Star and Garter in the left distance.There is a further separate detail of trees at top right corner. For another view of Richmond from the same sketchbook, also from the Surrey bank and showing a detail of the present view below to the right, see Tate D05932: Turner Bequest XCV 28. The present drawing is in Hill’s opinion ‘Turner’s most detailed study of the bridge’ and as he also observes it is spattered with oil stains from use next to his easel. But while the drawing is certainly related to the painting View of Richmond Hill and Bridge shown at Turner’s Gallery in 1808 (Tate N00557)1 others in the contemporary Hesperides (1) sketchbook served most directly for it (Tate D05827, D05831; Turner Bequest 35a, 37a).
Green watercolour down the right edge must have run across the gutter of the sketchbook from a coloured drawing on the right-hand page.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.56 no.73 (pl.83).
Verso:
Blank save for splashes of yellow, blue and carmine watercolours.

David Blayney Brown
February 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Richmond Bridge and Hill 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-richmond-bridge-and-hill-r1129960, accessed 24 November 2024.