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 Gunislake and Plymouth c.1813

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant Hills, Possibly between Gunislake and Plymouth’ c.1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Distant Hills, Possibly between Gunislake and Plymouth c.1813
D09924
Turner Bequest CXXXV 22
Pencil on white wove paper, 88 x 113 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘22’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXV – 22 bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing continues on folio 21 verso opposite (D09923). 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:
There is a dark vertical band towards the left, with small black spots at the top edge, corresponding with similar marks on the opposite page.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Distant Hills, Possibly between Gunislake 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-gunislake-and-plymouth-r1147879, accessed 18 September 2024.