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 and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tamar Valley 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Tamar Valley’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 135 Recto:
The Tamar Valley 1814
D09645
Turner Bequest CXXXII 135
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘135’ bottom right
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘W’ and ‘[?Wood]’ centre left, and ‘[?Tamar]’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 135’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner appears to have inscribed ‘Tamar’ at the bottom right, and Finberg described the view as ‘near Wier [sic] Head’,1 south of Gunnislake; see also the verso (D09646). There appears to be a waterwheel associated with the buildings towards the bottom right, but few other precise topographical pointers. This book contains numerous sketches along the meandering Tamar among wooded hills several miles up- and down-river of Weir Head, but the present scene remains to be precisely identified.
For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.375.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Tamar Valley 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-tamar-valley-r1147194, accessed 26 April 2024.