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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Severn Valley, Chester and Peak District ... > Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Figures on a Wooden Bridge, with Other Figures and Cattle in a Wooded Setting ?1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Figures on a Wooden Bridge, with Other Figures and Cattle in a Wooded Setting’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
Figures on a Wooden Bridge, with Other Figures and Cattle in a Wooded Setting ?1831
D22169
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 11’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There is perhaps a family group of a man, woman and child on the wooded bridge over a stream towards the left, while there are other figures and cattle to the right near a low two-arched bridge, with gables and chimney stacks beyond. Converging uprights and loosely architectural forms among the trees beyond the first bridge may indicate a church spire and further buildings.
The immediately adjacent identified views are of Worcester on folio 10 verso opposite (D22168) and Bridgnorth on the verso (D22170), so the present subject may be in the vicinity of either or at least in the Severn Valley, but the juxtaposition is not necessarily informative as numerous subjects are scattered through the sketchbook somewhat randomly.
At the centre left, inverted relative to the main drawing, is a slight continuation of the tower of Worcester Cathedral from D22168.
Technical notes:
Rubbing to the surface of the sheet, affecting the drawing, may be owing to the looseness of the sketchbook’s binding between this page, the outer face of one gathering, and D22168, the outer face of another.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Figures on a Wooden Bridge, with Other Figures and Cattle in a Wooded Setting ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-figures-on-a-wooden-bridge-with-other-figures-and-cattle-in-r1148815, accessed 13 January 2025.