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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Taddiport Bridge on the River Torridge, with Great Torrington Beyond 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
Taddiport Bridge on the River Torridge, with Great Torrington Beyond 1814
D09809
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 18
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘18’ bottom right (very faint)
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Presumably because of the complete disruption of the original sequence of Devon and Yorkshire sketches in this book (see the Introduction), Finberg thought this was a view in the Wharfe Valley1 in the latter county, but it actually shows Taddiport Bridge over the River Torridge in North Devon, with Great Torrington on the hill beyond to the north-east. About five miles south-east of Bideford (see the contemporary Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook; Tate D09561; Turner Bequest CXXXII 76), Great Torrington, the site of a Civil War battle in 1646, stands on a ridge high above the Common sloping down to the north bank of the river.
The water-mills on the opposite bank have not survived later industrial developments, although the small gazebo or belvedere at the far on the skyline still stands beside the bowling green on the site of the medieval castle off Castle Street.2 There is similar view of the Torridge Valley on the verso (D09810), while folio 80 recto (D09829; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 36) may possibly show a nearby scene. Other drawings made on the same occasion are in the Devon Rivers, No.1 book (see under Tate D09566; Turner Bequest CXXXII 80).

Matthew Imms
July 2014

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.381.
2
See Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, Devon, The Buildings of England, revised ed., New Haven and London 2002, p.463.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Taddiport Bridge on the River Torridge, with Great Torrington Beyond 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-taddiport-bridge-on-the-river-torridge-with-great-torrington-r1147386, accessed 18 January 2025.