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 1813 > Plymouth, Hamoaze Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Plymouth Sound: The Citadel, Mount Batten and Drake's Island 1813

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Plymouth Sound: The Citadel, Mount Batten and Drake's Island’ 1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 271 Verso:
Plymouth Sound: The Citadel, Mount Batten and Drake’s Island 1813
D09468
Turner Bequest CXXXI 182a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drake’s Island is seen from the west on the right, with the profile of Plymouth Citadel to the north-west on the left and the tower of Mount Batten on the east side of Plymouth Sound shown just to the left of the boats. There is a similar view on folio 270 verso (D09466; CXXXI 181a).
With the page turned horizontally, this drawing is part of a sequence working in from the back cover of the sketchbook, which correlates with accounts of a voyage Turner and others made from Plymouth south-east to Burgh Island, returning by land towards Plymouth. The sequence begins on folio 275 (D09476; Turner Bequest CXXXI 186a), under which the overall trip is discussed, and may extend as far as folio 228 verso (Tate D09382; Turner Bequest CXXXI 139a).
Technical notes:
Staining to the right matches that on folio 272 recto opposite (D09469; CXXXI 183).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Plymouth Sound: The Citadel, Mount Batten and Drake’s Island 1813 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-plymouth-sound-the-citadel-mount-batten-and-drakes-island-r1148198, accessed 04 April 2026.