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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Glastonbury: The Tor from Wearyall Hill 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Glastonbury: The Tor from Wearyall Hill’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 170 Verso:
Glastonbury: The Tor from Wearyall Hill 1811
D08681
Turner Bequest CXXIII 167a
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Part watermark ‘Smy | 179’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
From the top of Wearyall Hill on the southern approach to Glastonbury, Turner looks east-north-east to St Michael’s Tower on the Tor with the edge of the town on the left; the view on folio 171 recto opposite (D08682; CXXIII 168) is a continuation of the view to the north-east, but as the two sketches were made with the book turned horizontally, they appear one above the other.
There is a distant view of Glastonbury Tor from the north on folio 122 verso (D08595; CXXIII 119a), apparently inscribed ‘Avalon’, under which Turner’s possible awareness of the Arthurian associations of the site is discussed.

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Glastonbury: The Tor from Wearyall Hill 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, 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-glastonbury-the-tor-from-wearyall-hill-r1137159, accessed 26 April 2024.