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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Scotland and London Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Beneath London Bridge from the East c.1820

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Beneath London Bridge from the East’ c.1820
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
Beneath London Bridge from the East circa 1820
D13821
Turner Bequest CLXX 6
Pencil and watercolour on off-white wove paper, 177 x 256 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXX – 6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This watercolour sketch has been described by James Hamilton as ‘Waterloo Bridge from beneath’,1 and Andrew Wilton notes that Turner’s use of an exaggerated low viewpoint derived from Thomas Malton Junior’s Picturesque Tour Through the Cities of London and Westminster, 1792.2 Considering Turner’s other studies of Waterloo Bridge in this sketchbook, folios 6–10 (D13820–D13824; CLXX 5–9), that were all made from the north bank of the Thames, it is probable that this one was too, and therefore shows the northern end of the bridge from the east.
Turner made the picture by marking the main lines of perspective created by the bridge, and its arches in pencil before filling in the rest of the details in brown watercolour wash to show the shadows under the arches and between the two Doric columns that stand between each arch. He has also painted several figures in a boat in the foreground and perhaps several more on the shore at the right. Through the arch can be seen the first indication of some of the arches of Westminster Bridge to the south.
Turner made a similar study from the other side of the bridge on folio 8.
1
Hamilton 1998, pp.34 reproduced fig.27, 36.
2
Turner 1775–1851 1974–5 , p.85.
Verso:
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Thomas Ardill
August 2009

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Beneath London Bridge from the East c.1820 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-beneath-london-bridge-from-the-east-r1132306, accessed 24 November 2024.