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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Hulk Moored in the Hamoaze off Saltash 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 198 Recto:
A Hulk Moored in the Hamoaze off Saltash 1811
D08721
Turner Bequest CXXIII 195
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Part watermark ‘th | 96’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘195’ top left, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 195’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Dominated by the hull of an old warship in the foreground, the Cornish town of Saltash, shown in the distance in the view to the north on folio 196 recto (D08719; CXXIII 193), is seen here from the same angle across the Hamoaze (the Tamar Estuary), with the Tamar flowing south on the right, where the Royal Albert railway bridge now stands. A sketch on folio 65 verso (D08487; CXXIII 62a) shows an inn on the Saltash waterfront at that point.
The 1825 watercolour of Saltash, Cornwall (British Museum, London),1 depicting a distant, broader view from the south, was engraved in 1827 for Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales. It is based overall on a study in the later Devon Rivers, No.2 sketchbook (Tate D09698; Turner Bequest CXXXIII 26), but is perhaps also informed by the more detailed view recorded here.
There is another Hamoaze view on the verso (D08722; CXXIII 195a). For other views in the Plymouth area in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 3 verso (D08367).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.392 no.794, reproduced.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Hulk Moored in the Hamoaze off Saltash 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-hulk-moored-in-the-hamoaze-off-saltash-r1137199, accessed 28 March 2024.