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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Tour of Yorkshire 1816 > Yorkshire 4 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Kent Head, above Kentmere 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Kent Head, above Kentmere’ 1816
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
Kent Head, above Kentmere 1816
D11498
Turner Bequest CXLVII 35
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 206 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Ken Head’ top centre and ‘Wall’ left centre.
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘279’ bottom right and ‘35’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CXLVII 35’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Kent Head is the source of the River Kent among the high Lakeland fells about ten miles north-north-west of Kendal. Turner’s sketch is taken from the rough road a short distance above Hartrigg Farm, looking north-west to the southern slopes of High Street closing the valley at the centre, with the shoulder on Lingmell End to the right, and the slopes of Ill Bell and Froswick to the left. The building across the valley to the right is Tongue House, which still stands today. The sketch is continued to the left on folio 34 verso opposite (D11497).
On the same visit, Turner sketched the view at the very head of the valley, above the site of Kentmere Reservoir, in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook, (Tate D11176; Turner Bequest CXLV 87a). The present writer has dated Turner’s sketches at Kentmere to Monday 5 August 1816.

David Hill
February 2009

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Kent Head, above Kentmere 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-kent-head-above-kentmere-r1143633, accessed 20 April 2024.