Oil paint on canvas
Devon
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Crossing Brook
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
bridge
bridges and viaducts
Devon
dog - non-specific
England
England, South West
England, Southern
figure
hill
landscape
people
places
River Tamar
stream
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
valley
water: inland
wooded
<p>This is the Tamar valley in Devon, South West England. Mining works can be spotted above the bridge. With its warm light and long-distance view framed by trees, it evokes paintings by 17th-century French painter Claude Lorrain, whose work was popular among art collectors at this time. The painting was exhibited in the year of the battle of Waterloo, so viewers would have been alert to the patriotic subtext of a painting that celebrated the beauty and productivity of the British landscape.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
30 July 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
30 July 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
2001-07-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-07-30
Painting the English Landscape
Collection based display
6 February 2003 – 4 January 2004
2004-01-04
6 February 2003 – 11 May 2003
2003-05-11
2003-02-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
8 June 2003 – 7 September 2003
2003-09-07
2003-06-08
Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, USA)
2003-02-06
Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics 1820 - 1840
Exhibition
28 May 2007 – 27 July 2009
2009-07-27
28 May 2007
2007-05-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-05-28
A Turner Gallery
Collection based display
14 March 2008 – 9 June 2008
2008-06-09
14 March 2008 – 9 June 2008
2008-06-09
2008-03-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
2008-03-14
The triumph of landscape painting: Turner to Monet
Loan-out
14 March 2008 – 9 June 2008
2008-06-09
14 March 2008 – 9 June 2008
2008-06-09
2008-03-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
2008-03-14
The Triumph of Landscape: Turner to Monet
Loan-out
21 September 2009 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 24 January 2010
2010-01-24
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
22 February 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 3 January 2010
2010-01-03
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2010-02-22
Turner and the Masters
Loan-out
17 September 2011 – 8 January 2012
2012-01-08
17 September 2011 – 8 January 2012
2012-01-08
2011-09-17
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2011-09-17
Nothing in the world but youth
Loan-out
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
2012-03-14
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2012-03-14
Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude
Loan-out
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2012-04-14
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-14
Turner as a British Artist
Collection based display
1 September 2020 – 20 November 2022
2022-11-20
1 September 2020
2020-09-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-09-01
Clore 103
Collection based display
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 101
Collection based display
Crossing the Brook
support: 1930 × 1651 mm
frame: 2060 × 2350 × 180 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="text">
<p>This is the Tamar valley in Devon, South West England. Mining works can be spotted above the bridge. With its warm light and long-distance view framed by trees, it evokes paintings by 17th-century French painter Claude Lorrain, whose work was popular among art collectors at this time. The painting was exhibited in the year of the battle of Waterloo, so viewers would have been alert to the patriotic subtext of a painting that celebrated the beauty and productivity of the British landscape.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>130</b>. [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-crossing-the-brook-n00497" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00497</span></a>]<b> Crossing the Brook</b> Exh. 1815
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (497)
<br/>Canvas, 76 × 65 (193 × 165)
<br/><b>Coll.</b>
Turner Bequest 1856 (7, ‘Crossing the Brook’ 6'3" × 5'4 1/2"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1956.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1815 (94); Turner's gallery 1835; Tate Gallery 1931 (60, repr.); R.A. 1974–5 (164, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Engr.</b> By R. Brandard 1838/1842.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Farington <i>Diary</i> 5 June 1815; Ruskin 1843, 1851, 1857<sup>2</sup> and letters (1903–12, iii, pp. 241, 267, 297, 587; xii, p. 367; xiii, pp. 276–7; xxxvii, p. 13); Cunningham 1852, pp. 29, 32, 44; Cyrus Redding, <i>Fifty Years' Recollections</i> 1858, i, pp. 199–205; Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 171, 210–11, 219, 297–8; 1877, pp. 96, 122, 146–7, 152–3, 345, 378, 432–3; Hamerton 1879, pp. 151–5: Monkhouse 1879, p. 93; Bell 1901, pp. 62–3, 96 no. 133; Armstrong 1902, pp. 59, 106–7, 113, 220, repr. facing p. 110; Finberg 1910, p. 87; MacColl 1920, p. 12; Whitley 1928, pp. 241–4; Falk 1938, pp. 42–3; Davies 1946, pp. 149, 185; Clare 1951, pp. 55–7, repr. p. 50; Finberg 1961, pp. 212, 218–20, 238, 241, 252, 340, 386, 476 no. 188, pl. 17; Kitson 1964, p. 74, repr. pp. 28–9; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 32–4, colour pl. vii; Lindsay 1966, pp. 114, 152, 157, 242 n. 33; Gage 1969, pp. 39, 90, 171; Reynolds 1969, pp. 80, 96, 106, 186, colour pl. 72; Gaunt 1971, p. 6, colour pl. 14; Herrmann 1975, pp. 23–4, 57, 230, colour pl. 78; Kroeber 1978, p. 153 n. 8, pl. 55; Storch 1978, pp. 201–3, pl. 55; Wilton 1979, pp. 126, 135, 149, 157, pl. 125; Gage 1980, pp. 73, 207, 244; Hill 1981–2, pp. 2–3.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This highly Italianate, Claudian <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a>, developed from <i>Mercury and Herse</i> (No. 114), is in fact a product of Turner's visit to Devon in 1813 (see Nos. 213–25 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-milton-combe-d09207" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D09207</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-devonshire-bridge-with-cottage-d09217" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D09217</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-landscape-study-d40046" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D40046</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-plym-estuary-looking-north-d40028" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D40028</span></a>]), as was recognised in a review known from a press-cutting in the Victoria and Albert Museum, annotated 5 May 1815 but without the name of the publication: ‘Notwithstanding the buildings are Italian, the scene is found in Devonshire.’ Further evidence comes from two people who were with Turner for part of this tour. Cyrus Redding ‘traced three distinct snatches of scenery on the river Tamar’ when he saw what seems to have been this picture later in Turner's gallery and mentions how ‘Turner was struck with admiration at the bridge above the Wear, which he declared altogether Italian’.
<br/>
<br/>According to Charles Eastlake ‘The bridge ... is Calstock Bridge; some mining works are indicated in the middle distance. The extreme distance extends to the mouth of the Tamar, the harbour of Hamoaze, the hills of Mount Edgcumbe, and those on the opposite side of Plymouth Sound. The whole scene is extremely faithful’ (Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 210–11, 219). There are <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> of the countryside represented but not actually copied in the picture in the ‘Plymouth, Hamoaze’ sketchbook (CXXXI, e.g., p. 118, repr. Reynolds 1969, pl. 60) and a small <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> sketch in the ‘Woodcock Shooting’ sketchbook (CXXIX-52).
<br/>
<br/>Despite the strong Claudian elements the <i>Repository of Arts</i> for June 1815 could write, ‘We perceive no affinity to any style or any school in these works of Mr. Turner [<i>Crossing the Brook</i> and <i>Dido building Carthage,</i> No. 131 [<span>N00498</span>]]; we think his manner and execution are as purely original as the poetic forms which create his compositions ... Never have we seen a more elegant landscape than this’. The <i>Champion</i> for 7 May described the same two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> as of the class of ‘achievements that raise the achievers to that small but noble groupe, formed of the masters whose day is not so much of to-day, as of “all-time”.’
<br/>
<br/>However, Sir George Beaumont was of the contrary opinion as reported by Farington on 5 June 1815: ‘Of his picture “<i>Crossing the Brook</i>” He sd. it appeared to Him <i>weak</i>
and like the work of an Old man, one who had [<i>sic</i>] no longer saw or felt colour properly; it was all of <i>peagreen</i> insipidity. — These are my sentiments said He, &amp; I have as good a right &amp; it is as proper that I shd. express them as I have to give my opinion of a <i>poetical</i> or any other production. As to the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>Portrait</span></a> Painters [e.g., Thomas Phillips] who are particularly loud in their praise, unlimited, of these pictures I can only repeat what I have often said that I never knew a Portrait Painter excepting Sir Joshua Reynolds who had a right feeling and judgment of Landscape Painting.’ Perhaps because of the criticism of this influential connoisseur Turner failed to sell the picture, though Dawson Turner asked about it in 1818 when the price was 550 guineas. The picture was on view again in Turner's gallery in 1835 when it was noted by the <i>Spectator</i> for 26 April as ‘a lovely scene of the verdrous valley of the Tamar’.
<br/>
<br/>In a letter to Charles Eliot Norton of 7 August 1870 Ruskin retails an anecdote of Turner's indifference to seeing ‘a piece of paint out of the sky, as large as a fourpenny piece, ... lying on the floor [of Turner's gallery]... “How can you look at the picture and see it so injured?” said Kingsley. “What does it matter?” answered Turner; “the only use of the thing is to recall the impression.”’</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals architecture bridge bridges and viaducts Devon dog - non-specific England England, Southern England, South West figure hill landscape people places River Tamar stream UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features valley water: inland wooded