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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Kenilworth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Birmingham, with Christ Church and St Philip's Church ?from near the Birmingham and Worcester Canal 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Birmingham, with Christ Church and St Philip's Church ?from near the Birmingham and Worcester Canal’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Verso:
Birmingham, with Christ Church and St Philip’s Church ?from near the Birmingham and Worcester Canal 1830
D21997
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 13a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Small Wood W[...]’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards confirmed the spire and dome on the skyline to the left as those of Birmingham’s Christ Church (demolished in 1899) and St Philip’s Church (later Birmingham Cathedral) respectively,1 possibly seen from near the Birmingham and Worcester Canal. The view continues a little to the right across folio 14 recto (D21998), where the main drawing appears to be a separate Birmingham view. The significance of Turner’s ‘Small Wood’ is as yet not known.
For other views of Birmingham, see under folio 3 verso (D21980).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Birmingham, with Christ Church and St Philip’s Church ?from near the Birmingham and Worcester Canal 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, 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-birmingham-with-christ-church-and-st-philips-church-from-r1148639, accessed 21 November 2024.