Joseph Mallord William Turner

Totnes, on the River Dart

c.1824

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
‘Rivers of England’ Watercolours
Medium
Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 161 x 230 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D18135
Turner Bequest CCVIII B

Display caption

In the early 1820s Turner began several engraving projects, each intended to illuminate a particular area, or aspect
of the British countryside. The most successful prints were for a sequence
of views called the Rivers of England. These were skilfully reproduced as black and white images through the printing process known as mezzotint.

 

This view of Totnes in Devon was one
of the last to be issued. It shows the challenges faced by Turner's engravers. All the watercolours in this series recreate subtle atmospheric effects, building up the forms in the image through tiny touches of colour.

 

Gallery label, August 2004

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Catalogue entry

Here Turner depicts the market town of Totnes at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon. A local hoy laden with cargo drifts towards a mooring site on the outskirts of the town on the left, while seabirds and waders congregate at a bank on the right. The water is rendered with a mirror-like sheen, clusters of rich green foliage forming vivid and shimmering reflections within it. Turner has used a multiplicity of colours applied in layered stipples and hatches, blended and diffused seamlessly, to produce the lustrous surface of the water. The estuary is represented as an Arcadian vision, a place of harmony and abundance.
Beyond the water the faint, minutely rendered outline of the tower of St Mary’s Church is visible, framed by gently sloping hills. Atop the hill to the left is the curtain wall and shell keep of Totnes Castle, built in the fourteen and fifteen hundreds.1 The castle fell into ruin in the following century. The town is painted with muted, pale tones to suggest recession but this also serves to heighten the warmth and vibrancy of the pigments used in the foreground and middle distance.
Of this view, Turner’s biographer William Monkhouse writes, ‘nothing can be more purely English...[it is a]...‘picture of placid beauty in which there is no straining effect, no mannerism’. The level of Turner’s mimesis is such that Monkhouse writes: ‘there is nothing to remind you of the artist’ in the drawing; it is only until the viewer finds the ‘touches of red in the fore of the river...that you discern him at last, and find that you are looking not at nature but “a Turner”’.2
The River Dart also features in other of Turner’s Rivers of England watercolours: Dartmouth, on the River Dart and Dartmouth Castle, on the River Dart (Tate D18136, D18137; Turner Bequest CCVIII C, D). For other, earlier sketches of Totnes see Turner’s 1811 sketchbooks: Devonshire Coast, No.1 (Tate D08541, D08542, D08625; Turner Bequest CXXIII 91, 91a, 136) and Corfe to Dartmouth (Tate D08854, D08855; Turner Bequest CXXIV39, 40).
1
Bryant 1996, p.50, reproduced p.51.
2
Monkhouse 1929, p.87.

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

after Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Totnes, on the River Dart, engraved by C. Turner’ 1825

After Joseph Mallord William Turner Totnes, on the River Dart, engraved by C. Turner

1825
View by appointment T04819
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dartmouth Castle, on the River Dart’ 1822

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dartmouth Castle, on the River Dart

1822
View by appointment D18137
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Totnes from the River Dart’ 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner Totnes from the River Dart

1811
D08542
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dartmouth, on the River Dart’ 1822

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dartmouth, on the River Dart

1822
View by appointment D18136
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views on the River Dart, including Totnes’ 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views on the River Dart, including Totnes

1814
View by appointment D09745
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dartmouth Castle and the Mouth of the River Dart from Kingswear’ 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dartmouth Castle and the Mouth of the River Dart from Kingswear

1814
View by appointment D09737
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Boat, probably on the River Dart’ 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Boat, probably on the River Dart

1811
D08522
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Tower or Fortification, Possibly on the River Dart’ 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Tower or Fortification, Possibly on the River Dart

1811
D08524
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Dart Valley’ 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?The Dart Valley

1811
D08551
after Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dartmouth Castle, on the River Dart’ 1824

After Joseph Mallord William Turner Dartmouth Castle, on the River Dart

1824
View by appointment T04804
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views around Sharpham House on the River Dart near Totnes’ 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views around Sharpham House on the River Dart near Totnes

1814
View by appointment D09728
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Dart Valley’ 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?The Dart Valley

1811
D08545
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dartmouth Castle and the Mouth of the River Dart from Kingswear’ 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dartmouth Castle and the Mouth of the River Dart from Kingswear

1814
View by appointment D09736
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Dart Valley’ 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?The Dart Valley

1811
D08546
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Totnes Church and Castle from the Bridge over the River Dart’ 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner Totnes Church and Castle from the Bridge over the River Dart

1811
D08625