J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Review at Portsmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boats on the River Tamar at Calstock, with Prospect Tower in the Distance 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boats on the River Tamar at Calstock, with Prospect Tower in the Distance’ 1814
Folio 15 Recto:
Boats on the River Tamar at Calstock, with Prospect Tower in the Distance 1814
D10001
Turner Bequest CXXXVI 15
Pencil on white wove paper, 82 x 119 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘15’ bottom left, descending vertically (smudged)
Stamped in black ‘CXXXVI – 15’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this is a sketch of several boats moored on the River Tamar with foliage covered hills on either side of its banks. There appears to slight indications of three figures on the lower right corner. In the background, the Prospect Tower of the Cotehele Estate can be seen in the in the distance on top of the hill.
The boat and view in this sketch greatly resembles a study in the Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D09656; CXXXII 141) and there is a similar view in the Vale of Heathfield sketchbook (D10265; CXXXVII 43a).
For other views along the Tamar Valley in this sketchbook, see folios 3 to 16 (D09989–D10002). The verso, D40831, is a related sketch.

Vanessa Otim
March 2025

How to cite

Vanessa Otim, ‘Boats on the River Tamar at Calstock, with Prospect Tower in the Distance 1814’, catalogue entry, March 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/boats-on-the-river-tamar-at-calstock-with-prospect-tower-in-the-distance-r1213904, accessed 31 July 2026.