Joseph Mallord William Turner

Pendennis Castle

1811

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 75 × 117 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D08761
Turner Bequest CXXIII 218

Catalogue entry

The slope to the right of the castle in the main drawing is followed down to the sea in a continuation in the bottom left corner. This is a more detailed treatment of one of the views on folio 220 verso opposite (D08760; CXXIII 217a).

Eric Shanes has noted this detailed drawing of the castle as a source for the watercolour Pendennis Castle, Cornwall, Scene after a Wreck of about 1816 (private collection),1 engraved in 1817 for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England 2 (see the concordance of the series in the 1811 tour introduction), although Turner followed the main lines of a partially coloured drawing of the castle in its wider coastal setting in the larger Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08905; Turner Bequest CXXV 27), which probably provided enough information in itself.

For other views in and around Falmouth see under folio 7 verso (D08375).

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.352 no.458, reproduced.

Shanes 1981, p.152.

Verso:

Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2011

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