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 Plymouth Sound: The Citadel and Mount Batten 1813

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Plymouth Sound: The Citadel and Mount Batten’ 1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 269 Verso:
Plymouth Sound: The Citadel and Mount Batten 1813
D09464
Turner Bequest CXXXI 180a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
Watermark ‘Ivy’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?4]’ towards left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the viewpoint is close to the shore below Plymouth Hoe, looking east past the Citadel on the slopes to the left, towards the tower of Mount Batten loosely outlined to the right of the most prominent boat. The apparent number ‘4’ above the skyline on the left may refer to some architectural feature at that point.
This drawing is part of a sequence working in from the back cover of the sketchbook, which correlates with accounts of a voyage Turner and others made from Plymouth south-east to Burgh Island, returning by land towards Plymouth. The sequence begins on folio 275 (D09476; Turner Bequest CXXXI 186a), under which the overall trip is discussed, and may extend as far as folio 228 verso (Tate D09382; Turner Bequest CXXXI 139a).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Plymouth Sound: The Citadel and 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-sound-the-citadel-and-mount-batten-r1148194, accessed 23 April 2024.