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.2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Laira (Plym Estuary) near Saltram Park, with Plymouth Beyond 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Laira (Plym Estuary) near Saltram Park, with Plymouth Beyond’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Recto:
The Laira (Plym Estuary) near Saltram Park, with Plymouth Beyond 1814
D09715
Turner Bequest CXXXIII 39
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 178 mm
Part watermark ‘Fell | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘39’ bottom right, descending vertically, and ‘294’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIII 39’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Looking south-west down the Laira (Plym Estuary) towards Plymouth, Mount Batten and the Citadel are lightly indicated in the distance with Mount Edgcumbe beyond. This is one of a sequence of sketches from similar viewpoints in the neighbourhood of Boringdon Park; see also folios 40 recto and 41 recto (D09716, D09717). Compare the drawing in the 1811 Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08567; Turner Bequest CXXIII 104a) and Turner’s oil sketch of 1813 (Tate D09211; Turner Bequest CXXX E).1
The exact viewpoint is difficult to establish owing to later development including housing and dual carriageways in the foreground. Saltram Park is on the slopes to the left; for other views of the house and estate see the Introduction to the 1813 West Country tour in this catalogue. The fortification on the summit to the right is Clarke’s Battery.2
For views at nearby Plympton, see under folio 42 recto (D09718).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.133 no.217, pl.218 (colour).
2
See Sam Smiles, ‘The Devonshire Oil Sketches of 1813’, Turner Studies, vol.9, no.1, Summer 1989, p.14.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Laira (Plym Estuary) near Saltram Park, with Plymouth Beyond 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-the-laira-plym-estuary-near-saltram-park-with-plymouth-r1147266, accessed 19 April 2024.