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 1811 > Ivy Bridge to Penzance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Plymouth Sound with Mount Batten, Mount Edgcumbe and the Citadel 1811

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Plymouth Sound with Mount Batten, Mount Edgcumbe and the Citadel’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Plymouth Sound with Mount Batten, Mount Edgcumbe and the Citadel 1811
D08866
Turner Bequest CXXV 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 166 x 208 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXV – 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint is Teats Hill, above Deadman’s Bay at the entrance to the Cattewater, looking west to the Citadel and south-west to the tower at Mount Batten. In the far distance beyond the tower is Penlee Point at the seaward end of Plymouth Sound, with Mount Edgcumbe in front of it running across to the right from the centre of the drawing, and Drake’s Island in front of Mount Edgcumbe in turn. The horizon develops a gradual, presumably unintentional tilt down towards the right-hand edge. This is the first of a sequence of sketches of Plymouth and surrounding districts, running on to folio 14 recto (D08880; CXXV 13).
There are slight views of Plymouth and the locality, some more certain than others, in the Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook, also used on this tour (Tate D08367, D08402, D08694, D08717, D08718, D08719, D08722, D08727; Turner Bequest CXXIII 3a, 21a, 175, 192, 192a, 193, 195a, 198a). The area is covered extensively in the later Plymouth, Hamoaze and Devon Rivers, No.2 sketchbooks (Tate; Turner Bequest CXXXI, CXXXIII).
Technical notes:
There is a prominent crease along the lower half of the right-hand edge.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Plymouth Sound with Mount Batten, Mount Edgcumbe and the Citadel 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-plymouth-sound-with-mount-batten-mount-edgcumbe-and-the-r1137347, accessed 24 April 2024.