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 > Devon Rivers, No.2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Church Tower among Wooded Hills, Probably in Devon 1814

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Church Tower among Wooded Hills, Probably in Devon’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
A Church Tower among Wooded Hills, Probably in Devon 1814
D09721
Turner Bequest CXXXIII 44
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 178 mm
Part watermark ‘Fell | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘44’ bottom right, descending vertically, and ‘294’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIII 44’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although the present subject has yet to be definitely identified (despite Finberg’s confident but unsupported assertion that it shows the ‘River Tamar’1 along the western border of the county), it appears more characteristic of south Devon, the area shown on adjacent pages. A pinnacled square tower rises in among trees in the middle distance, with the tower of what is probably the south side of another church in the distance towards the skyline on the left.
At the top centre is a slight continuation of trees from the vertically orientated drawing of Ivybridge on folio 43 verso opposite (D09720).
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.377.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Church Tower among Wooded Hills, Probably in Devon 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-church-tower-among-wooded-hills-probably-in-devon-r1147272, accessed 25 April 2024.