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 Carthamartha and the River Tamar 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Carthamartha and the River Tamar’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 126 Recto:
Carthamartha and the River Tamar 1814
D09628
Turner Bequest CXXXII 126
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Part watermark ‘y Mill | 1812’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Wood’ centre left, ‘R’ twice at centre, and ‘[?Grass]’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘126’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 126’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk have identified the sketch as of Carthamartha, on the southern, Cornish side of the Tamar east of Lezant, about half way between Launceston and Gunnislake (roughly six miles to the north-west and south-east respectively as the crow flies). Here Turner looks south down the loop of the river in the valley below the building on the horizon at Carthamartha, where scattered farm buildings stand today beyond the woods above Carthamartha Rocks.
There is a view of the site from a different angle on folio 127 recto (D09630). For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Carthamartha and the River Tamar 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-carthamartha-and-the-river-tamar-r1147177, accessed 25 April 2024.