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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Composition Studies Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Kew Bridge from the River Thames c.1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Kew Bridge from the River Thames’ c.1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
Kew Bridge from the River Thames c.1805
D03805
Turner Bequest LXV 4
Ink on cream laid writing paper, 118 x 184 mm
Part watermark ‘J Lar’
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘5’ and ‘6’ towards top left, ‘4’ towards top right and ‘[?4]’ above centre and ‘[?1]’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘4’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXV – 4’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With its billowing cloud and slanting rain, the changeable weather in this drawing is emphasised by the hatching at one end of the bridge in the middle distance, directly comparable with the effect of sudden shadow in Turner’s watercolour study of the old Kew Bridge in the Thames, from Reading to Walton sketchbook (Tate D05946; Turner Bequest XCV 42), looking east. This appears to be a rapid variation on that view, in an area frequently depicted around 1805 when Turner was based at Syon Ferry House, Isleworth, just upstream (see the overall Introduction to this section). The characteristic profile of a Thames barge is here reduced to elementary vertical and horizontal accents.
For Turner’s use of numbers within the drawings in this book, see the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank. There is slight offsetting from the ink drawing on folio 5 recto opposite (D03806).

Matthew Imms
April 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Kew Bridge from the River Thames c.1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-kew-bridge-from-the-river-thames-r1183642, accessed 17 July 2024.