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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Fort beside a Shore with Shipping, Possibly on the Hamoaze or Mount Edgcumbe 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Recto:
A Fort beside a Shore with Shipping, Possibly on the Hamoaze or Mount Edgcumbe 1811
D08873
Turner Bequest CXXV 8
Pencil on white wove paper, 166 x 208 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘8’ bottom right (now faint)
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXV – 8’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The setting is a small cove or inlet. Men are working on beached boats to the left with what seems to be a minor fort or fortified building, possibly ruined, and other buildings beyond. The masts of at least two ships are indicated on the right. The setting has yet to be established, but is probably west of Plymouth along the Hamoaze (the Tamar Estuary), which has seen much subsequent development, or to the south on Mount Edgcumbe, which appears on folio 10 recto (D08874; CXXV 9).
This is one of a series of sketches of Plymouth and nearby districts, running from folio 3 recto (D08866; CXXV 2) to folio 14 recto (D08880; CXXV 13); see the entry for the first of these for other Plymouth views.
Verso:
Blank, save for some offsetting from the drawing on folio 10 recto opposite (D08874; CXXV 9).

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Fort beside a Shore with Shipping, Possibly on the Hamoaze or Mount Edgcumbe 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-a-fort-beside-a-shore-with-shipping-possibly-on-the-hamoaze-r1137354, accessed 20 April 2024.