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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > Tweed and Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Cockermouth 1797

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cockermouth’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
Cockermouth 1797
D01022
Turner Bequest XXXV 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 274 x 370 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXV 20’ bottom left, descending vertically
Cockermouth was the extreme westerly point of Turner’s Lake District tour, and prompted only one drawing on this visit. The view, made with the page turned horizontally, is taken on the River Derwent, looking upstream with the castle on the right. He was later to have more substantial links with the town: the castle is one of the seats of the Earls of Egremont, and he was commissioned to paint it by the 3rd Earl who acquired the picture1 in 1810 after Turner had visited Cockermouth again and made further studies in 1809. The oil painting still hangs at Petworth (Tate T03879); see also the ‘Works for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale 1809’ section of the present catalogue.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.77 no.108, pl.115 (colour).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed in a later hand in pencil ‘20’, and by A.J. Finberg in pencil ‘141.20’.

Andrew Wilton
August 2010

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Cockermouth 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-cockermouth-r1150194, accessed 25 April 2024.