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 and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Great Torrington from the Torridge Valley 1814

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Great Torrington from the Torridge Valley’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
Great Torrington from the Torridge Valley 1814
D09567
Turner Bequest CXXXII 81
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Weir’ towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘81’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 81’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner looks north-west down the valley of the River Torridge, from around the site of New Bridge, built in the 1840s1 near the Town Mills. Near the middle of the skyline, as seen in other drawings here, appears to be the gazebo or belvedere which still stands beside the bowling green on the site of the medieval castle off Castle Street,2 with the spire of St Michael’s Church beyond. There is a continuation to the right on folio 82 recto (D09568); Turner must have pulled back the present page to make it.
For other views of the town on adjacent pages, see under folio 80 recto (D09566).
1
See Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, Devon, The Buildings of England, revised ed., New Haven and London 2002, p.460.
2
See ibid., p.463.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Great Torrington from the Torridge Valley 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-great-torrington-from-the-torridge-valley-r1147114, accessed 23 April 2024.