Catalogue entry
Sharpham House stands near Ashprington, about two miles south-east of Totnes (see under folio 48 verso;
D09726), high on the west bank of the River Dart within a tight bend looping around its north, east and south sides. Turner has bisected the page both horizontally and vertically, using the quadrants to show four successive riverbank views. The house may be shown to the south-east at the top left, while at the top right there is a view in the opposite direction back up the Dart, with Totnes’s castle and church in the distance. The wooded bank at the bottom left lacks obvious landmarks, but the house is shown again at the bottom right, apparently from the south, with a separate detail above.
These drawings, along with those along the Dart on adjacent pages, are central to Sam Smiles’s proposal that this sketchbook was used in Devon in 1814, as Turner described a recent trip down the river from Totnes to Dartmouth (see under folio 50 recto;
D09730) in a letter datable to the autumn of that year;
1 see the overall Introduction to the tour.
This page was exhibited in
Light into Colour: Turner in the South West at St Ives and Plymouth in 2006.
2
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