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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Rokeby and Appleby Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mayburgh Henge and Beacon Hill, Penrith 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mayburgh Henge and Beacon Hill, Penrith’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Verso:
Mayburgh Henge and Beacon Hill, Penrith 1831
D25584
Turner Bequest CCLXIV 31a
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 94 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘garden’ under the top sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned to the right are two sketches, one of a landscape inscribed ‘garden’ and the other of a hill. These somewhat resemble sketches in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border sketchbook made at Mayburgh Henge at Eamont Bridge, Penrith. The top sketch could therefore depict the standing stone with the circular earthwork indicated by the curved line at the right of the sketch. See D25812–D25813 (Turner Bequest CCLXVI 26a–27) for comparison.
The sketch beneath depicts a hill with a dark shape on top that resembles Beacon Hill with Penrith Beacon at its summit. The hill is seen in the background of several of the Mayburgh sketches in the Minstrelsy book including the one cited above. There is also a labelled sketch of the hill: Tate 25814 (Turner Bequest CCLXVI 27a).
With the sketchbook in its usual ‘landscape’ orientation is a very slight sketch of the outline of hills which continued on folio 32 (D25585).

Thomas Ardill
May 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Mayburgh Henge and Beacon Hill, Penrith 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mayburgh-henge-and-beacon-hill-penrith-r1133944, accessed 19 September 2024.