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 Weir Head on the River Tamar, with Gunnislake Beyond 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Weir Head on the River Tamar, with Gunnislake Beyond’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 139 Recto:
Weir Head on the River Tamar, with Gunnislake Beyond 1814
D09652
Turner Bequest CXXXII 139
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘139’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 139’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk point out,1 there is a more detailed sketch from a similar viewpoint on folio 143 recto (D09660). Looking north from or near Colley Cliff on the Calstock to Gunnislake road, the Tamar at Weir Head (the limit of the tidal river) and the short, straight canal by-passing it, are lightly indicated on the right, with Gunnislake in the distance; the scene is now obscured by trees in the foreground.
For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

1
Cook and Kirk 2001, p.40.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Weir Head on the River Tamar, with Gunnislake Beyond 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-weir-head-on-the-river-tamar-with-gunnislake-beyond-r1147201, accessed 16 April 2024.