'?Buildings at Marazion or on St Michael's Mount', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

?Buildings at Marazion or on St Michael's Mount

From Ivy Bridge to Penzance Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CXXV

Date 1811

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 166 x 208 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D08926

Turner Bequest CXXV 40

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Ivy Bridge to Penzance Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 41 Recto:

?Buildings at Marazion or on St Michael’s Mount 1811

D08926
Turner Bequest CXXV 40

Pencil on white wove paper, 166 x 208 mm
Watermark ‘Fellows | 1808’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘40’ top left, upside down (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘CXXV – 40’ top left, upside down

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

One possibility is that this drawing was abandoned at an early stage, as it only occupies about the left-hand third of the page. It shows houses or cottages above a slope, apparently on a shore with a coastline in the distance, and possibly shows the same part of Marazion that appears on the right in the view of the town and St Michael’s Mount on folio 42 verso (D08929; CXXV 41a), with the west side of Mount’s Bay beyond.

Otherwise, the view may be a continuation to the left from a full-page sketch, facilitated by pushing aside the main drawing slightly to the right. If so, the page is not in its original sequence (see the introduction to the sketchbook) as the recto of the preceding leaf (D08924; CXXV 39) is blank. A possible candidate is the view of the western range of the castle on the Mount itself, on folio 37 verso (D08919; CXXV 36a), which runs across to the left-hand edge at the same relative height as the right-hand boundary of the present drawing.

For other views of the area, see under folio 32 recto (D08910; CXXV 31).

Matthew Imms
February 2011

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.