Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Water Mill at Berry Pomeroy

1811

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Not on display

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 117 × 75 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D08642
Turner Bequest CXXIII 145

Catalogue entry

The Castle Mill complex, no longer functioning, adjoins the lane west of Berry Pomeroy Castle. The gabled façade at its southern end, with its ramshackle porch over the entrance arch, is shown in Old Mill at Pomeroy Castle, Devon, a wash drawing by Turner’s contemporary Thomas Barker of Bath (Government Art Collection, London). The mill is much changed, and the gable is now surmounted by a modern roof with a straight diagonal profile.

The mill also appears in the foreground of a view of the castle on folio 146 recto (D08638; CXXIII 143). For a discussion of the castle and other studies in this sketchbook, see the entry for folio 141 recto (D08628; CXXIII 138). Turner sketched the similar Ogwell Mill, about six miles to the north, on folios 76 recto and verso and 77 recto (D08508–D08510; CXXIII 73, 73a, 74).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

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