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 Pendennis Castle 1811

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Pendennis Castle’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 221 Recto:
Pendennis Castle 1811
D08761
Turner Bequest CXXIII 218
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘218’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 218’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The slope to the right of the castle in the main drawing is followed down to the sea in a continuation in the bottom left corner. This is a more detailed treatment of one of the views on folio 220 verso opposite (D08760; CXXIII 217a).
Eric Shanes has noted this detailed drawing of the castle as a source for the watercolour Pendennis Castle, Cornwall, Scene after a Wreck of about 1816 (private collection),1 engraved in 1817 for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England2 (see the concordance of the series in the 1811 tour introduction), although Turner followed the main lines of a partially coloured drawing of the castle in its wider coastal setting in the larger Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08905; Turner Bequest CXXV 27), which probably provided enough information in itself.
For other views in and around Falmouth see under folio 7 verso (D08375).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.352 no.458, reproduced.
2
Shanes 1981, p.152.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Pendennis Castle 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-pendennis-castle-r1137239, accessed 19 April 2024.