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 > Plymouth, Hamoaze Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Group of Buildings, Perhaps at a Quayside in South Devon 1813

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Group of Buildings, Perhaps at a Quayside in South Devon’ 1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Verso:
A Group of Buildings, Perhaps at a Quayside in South Devon 1813
D09247
Turner Bequest CXXXI 28a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
Part watermark ‘Ivy’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the subject of this drawing is uncertain. There appear to be figures in front of the buildings, and the shapes at the bottom centre may be upturned rowing boats on a slope. In common with identified views in this sketchbook, the setting is probably in South Devon, perhaps on a quay beside a river or estuary. There is a slight resemblance to the view of the Tamar waterfront at Saltash in the 1811 Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08487; Turner Bequest CXXIII 62a), but this may be fortuitous.
The subjects as far as folio 127 recto (D09358) are all identified or presumed sites within a few miles in and around Plymouth, suggesting a series of fairly short excursions.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Group of Buildings, Perhaps at a Quayside in South Devon 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-a-group-of-buildings-perhaps-at-a-quayside-in-south-devon-r1147974, accessed 20 September 2024.