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 St Michael's Mount from the Coast near Longrock 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St Michael's Mount from the Coast near Longrock’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 47 Verso:
St Michael’s Mount from the Coast near Longrock 1811
D08937
Turner Bequest CXXV 46
Pencil on white wove paper, 166 x 208 mm
Watermark ‘Fellows | 1808’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Penzance Bridge’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ’46’ bottom right (now very faint)
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXV – 46’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Mount, Marazion and the coast beyond are seen to the south-west across Mount’s Bay. There is a similar view on folio 46 recto (D08935; CXXV 45), which appears to be from where the coast road now crosses the railway. There have been changes and additions along this stretch and the bridge remains unidentified, assuming it still exists.
For other views of the site, see under folio 32 recto (D08910; CXXV 31).
Technical notes:
The recto of the leaf is blank. Finberg’s 1909 numbering (without his customary ‘a’ suffix to indicate a verso) and the presence of the stamped number on the present page make it unclear whether it was bound as the verso at the time. The page was once detached from the book with a loss of several millimetres. It has been reattached to a stub of new paper, acting as a bridge to the original stub, the irregular edge of which suggests that the main body of the page was torn out before being tidied up, apparently freehand with scissors rather than a knife and straight edge. The orientation of the watermark is consistent with those on adjacent pages; otherwise it might seem that the page had been reinserted back to front.

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘St Michael’s Mount from the Coast near Longrock 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-st-michaels-mount-from-the-coast-near-longrock-r1137420, accessed 16 April 2024.