Joseph Mallord William Turner

Mount Edgcumbe is seen to the west from the coast at Staddon Heights, overlooking Jennycliff Bay on the opposite side of Plymouth Sound, with Drake’s Island below it to the right and Penlee Point in the distance on the left. There is a similar view in the contemporary Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08367; Turner Bequest CXXIII 3a) and a drawing looking in the same direction from further south among various sketches from around Jennycliff Bay in the later Plymouth, Hamoaze sketchbook (Tate D09281; Turner Bequest CXXXI 59).

This is one of a series of sketches of Plymouth and nearby districts, running from folio 3 recto (D08866; CXXV 2) to folio 14 recto (D08880; CXXV 13); see the entry for the first of these for other Plymouth views. The drawing continues a little way onto folio 5 recto opposite (D08869; CXXV 4).