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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > Mortlake and Pulborough Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: The Marquee beside Old London Bridge 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: The Marquee beside Old London Bridge’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: The Marquee beside Old London Bridge 1825
D18708
Turner Bequest CCXIII 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 187 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...]’ top left, ‘Blue’, ‘[...]’ and ‘Large [...]’ top centre, ‘[...]’ towards top right, and ‘W St George Cross’ centre right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXIII – 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is south-east over the River Thames towards the upstream side of Old London Bridge, which is continued to the left across folio 1 verso opposite (D18707). Towards the right here is the large marquee erected over the coffer-dam around the site of the southernmost pier of the new London Bridge, for the foundation stone ceremony held on the riverbed on 15 June 1825. Above fly several large flags and bunting, around which Turner has made colour notes.
The ceremony and other studies relating to it at the beginning and end of this sketchbook are discussed in the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The London Bridge Foundation Stone Ceremony: The Marquee beside Old London Bridge 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-london-bridge-foundation-stone-ceremony-the-marquee-r1172830, accessed 21 November 2024.