Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner’s viewpoint is the western end of Plymouth Hoe, looking south-west past Drake’s Island to Mount Edgcumbe and Penlee Point. The prospect is continued to the right on the verso (D09670); compare also folio 18 recto (D09690).

There is a similar view in the 1811 Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08555; Turner Bequest CXXIII 98). The tower in the distance may be the folly above Penlee Point, apparently demolished During World War I for security reasons,1 and still marked as a ruin on Ordnance Survey maps. It also appears to be shown on the distant skyline of a view in the Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketch, and in more detail in the 1811 Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08876; Turner Bequest CXXV 10a).

Turner had made many drawings around Plymouth on his extended 1813 visit, using the Plymouth, Hamoaze sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CXXXI). For various studies on the River Tamar and its estuary the Hamoaze in the present book, see under folio 3 recto (D09671).