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 1813 > Chemistry and Apuleia Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant Hills, Possibly between Gunnislake and Plymouth c.1813

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant Hills, Possibly between Gunnislake and Plymouth’ c.1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Distant Hills, Possibly between Gunnislake and Plymouth c.1813
D09922
Turner Bequest CXXXV 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 88 x 113 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘21’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXV – 21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing is a continuation from the previous double-page view on folios 19 verso–20 recto (D09920, D09921). Turner drew back the previous leaf until it was almost folded in half to continue the horizontal features of the panoramic landscape from folio 20 recto onto the right-hand side of the present page. The lack of landmarks makes the subject difficult to confirm, but it may relate to the succession of hills looking south towards Plymouth from Gunnislake in the background of Turner’s large painting Crossing the Brook, exhibited in 1815 (Tate N00497).1 There is a sketch of similar terrain, directly related to that part of the painting, in the Vale of Heathfield sketchbook (Tate D10274; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 48). For further discussion of various landscape and tree studies in this sketchbook in that context, see under folio 14 recto (D09910).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.93–4 no.130, pl.123 (colour).
Technical notes:
A small, ringed spot of foxing to the right of centre shows through from the verso (Tate D09923; Turner Bequest CXXXV 21a).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Distant Hills, Possibly between Gunnislake and Plymouth c.1813 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-distant-hills-possibly-between-gunnislake-and-plymouth-r1147877, accessed 25 April 2024.