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.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Tower on a Hill above Other Buildings, with the Sea in the Distance, Probably in North Devon 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Tower on a Hill above Other Buildings, with the Sea in the Distance, Probably in North Devon’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 72 Recto:
A Tower on a Hill above Other Buildings, with the Sea in the Distance, Probably in North Devon 1814
D09557
Turner Bequest CXXXII 72
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Part watermark ‘y Mill | 1812’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘72’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 72’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg called this a ‘Castle on hill’,1 but the small building at the top left does not appear grand enough to merit the description. It may be a look-out tower of some kind. There is a building with a pitched roof among trees below, and perhaps one or two others lightly indicated in the middle distance. There seems to be a headland beyond with the horizon of the sea to its right (compare folio 73 recto; D09558). The subject is presently unidentified, but probably in north Devon from its context in the sketchbook.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.374.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Tower on a Hill above Other Buildings, with the Sea in the Distance, Probably in North Devon 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-tower-on-a-hill-above-other-buildings-with-the-sea-in-the-r1147104, accessed 04 April 2026.