Joseph Mallord William Turner

Endsleigh Cottage and the Tamar Valley

1814

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 90 x 152 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D09635
Turner Bequest CXXXII 130

Catalogue entry

Prompted by an 1823 engraving of the same view by F.C. Lewis,1 Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk have identified the scene as the Tamar Valley with Endsleigh Cottage, about six miles north-west of Gunnislake (see the entry for D09634 for the situation and history of the house). The viewpoint is above the eastern, Devon bank of the Tamar near the Swiss cottage south-east of the house.

To the left is a slight continuation of the sketch of the same scene on folio 129 verso opposite (D09634). The main drawing here is constrained by pencil borders about a third in from the left and a similar proportion from the bottom. Turner repeats the view on the verso of the leaf (D09636), this time using the full page.

For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

Cook and Kirk 2001, pp.47–8, engraving reproduced p.48; Cook and Kirk 2009, pp.52–3, engraving reproduced p.52, together with another, closer Lewis view of the house.

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