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View Before Ironbridge Built
View Before Ironbridge Built

View Before Ironbridge Built

Artist (England, active 1763 - 1800)
Date1798
Mediumpencil drawing with grey and brownish wash & some brush drawing
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
Dimensions11 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches
AcquisitionPresented in 1957 by Miss Lizzie Hogarth.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationHistoric Loss - research into this object's history and current status is ongoing
Object numberABDAG017663
About MeOne of 99 drawings on 92 leaves of paper from a sketchbook used by William Williams.

A river valley sketch with 'A View on the River Severn at Madely near Coalbrookdale and where the iron bridge is to be built' is written on the verso of the sketch.

The famous bridge was designed 1775 and built 1777-79 which dates this drawing to 1775-77 assuming the intention to build the bridge must have been known.

This sketch may be linked with William Willams Royal Academy exhibits of 1778: 'A morning view of Coalbrooke Dale' and 'An afternoon view of Coalbrooke Dale' both held by the Shrewsbury Museum Service.

This drawing, along with 46 other leaves from the same sketchbook, is now untraced. Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums is keen to reunite the drawings as one album. If you have any information relating to the current whereabouts of this work please contact Aberdeen Art Gallery.
More About Me
Probably from the mid 1770s, when the design of the world's first cast iron bridge (still standing) was known, but before its construction