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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Plymouth Citadel and the Barbican from Mount Batten 1813

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
Plymouth Citadel and the Barbican from Mount Batten 1813
D09228
Turner Bequest CXXXI 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘11’ bottom right, descending vertically, and ‘6’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXXI – 11’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is north-west from Mount Batten across the Cattewater to the Citadel and the waterfront houses of Plymouth’s Barbican, with the tower of St Andrew’s Church and the spire of the Charles Church beyond. The view remains recognisable from the car park at this point today.
There is an earlier drawing of the Citadel and St Andrew’s tower from further east in the Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08869; Turner Bequest CXXV 4). The subjects as far as folio 127 recto (D09358) of the present sketchbook are all identified or presumed sites within a few miles in and around Plymouth, suggesting a series of fairly short excursions.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Plymouth Citadel and the Barbican from Mount Batten 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-plymouth-citadel-and-the-barbican-from-mount-batten-r1147955, accessed 29 March 2024.