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 > Ivy Bridge to Penzance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner St Michael's Mount: The Northern Range of the Castle 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St Michael's Mount: The Northern Range of the Castle’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
St Michael’s Mount: The Northern Range of the Castle 1811
D08915
Turner Bequest CXXV 34
Pencil on white wove paper, 166 x 208 mm
Watermark ‘Fellows | 1808’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CXXV – 34’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint is high on the slopes of the mount itself, with the square central church tower seen in steep perspective from the north-east. Lower down on the right is a watchtower near the batteries on the west side of the island.1 The lower levels on this side have since been extensively altered, with the addition of balustraded terraces to the left and extra rooms in place of the jagged outcrop to the right of centre, which Turner has recorded with especially vigorous pencil work.
The composition continues a little way onto folio 34 verso opposite (D40817; verso of CXXV 33). The watchtower is seen from the opposite direction on folio 36 recto (D08917; CXXV 35). For other views of the site, see under folio 32 recto (D08910; CXXV 31).

Matthew Imms
February 2011

1
See Jonathan Holmes, Mount’s Bay, Archive Photographs Series, Chalford 1996, p.98 (engraving, 1786).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘St Michael’s Mount: The Northern Range of the Castle 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-st-michaels-mount-the-northern-range-of-the-castle-r1137398, accessed 22 September 2024.