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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Mine or Quarry, Probably near Redruth 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 236 Recto:
A Mine or Quarry, Probably near Redruth 1811
D08779
Turner Bequest CXXIII 233
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘233’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 233’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This appears to be an industrial scene of some kind, with several figures at work in the right foreground and what may be chimneys or winches on the hillsides above. The drawing on the verso (D08780) appears to show Redruth, and the present sketch may record one of the many mines extracting copper and other ores in the Redruth–Camborne area of north-west Cornwall.1 A view of watermills in the contemporary Cornwall and Devon sketchbook (Tate D41332; Turner Bequest CXXV a 52) may show the same area.

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
See ‘The Camborne-Redruth Mining District’, Cornish Mining World Heritage, accessed 22 March 2011, http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/sites/camred.htm.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Mine or Quarry, Probably near Redruth 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-mine-or-quarry-probably-near-redruth-r1137258, accessed 29 March 2024.