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 Totnes Castle and Church from the River Dart 1814

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Totnes Castle and Church from the River Dart’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Recto:
Totnes Castle and Church from the River Dart 1814
D09726
Turner Bequest CXXXIII 48
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 178 mm
Part watermark ‘ows | 2’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘48’ bottom right, descending vertically, and ‘294’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIII 48’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Totnes is seen to the north-west up the River Dart, with the castle and St Mary’s Church towards the centre. There are similar views in the 1811 Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08541, D08542; Turner Bequest CXXIII 91, 91a). The sketches all informed the watercolour Totnes, on the River Dart of about 1824 (Tate D18135; Turner Bequest CCVIII B),1 engraved in 1827 for the Rivers of England. While the left foreground and hills beyond the church in the watercolour are probably taken from D08542 in Devonshire Coast, No.1, its castle, church and waterfront buildings are closer to the present study, even down to the shadow across the left-hand end of the castle.2
The sketches on folios 47 verso opposite and the verso of this leaf (D09725, D09727) are likely to have been made on the Dart nearby. There is a thumbnail sketch showing Totnes in the distance among those on folio 49 recto (D09728), and are further views on folios 60 verso and 61 recto (D09745, D09746), apparently made on returning along the river from Dartmouth, of which there are several views on the intervening pages (see under folio 50 recto; D09730).

Matthew Imms
July 2014

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.386 no.747, reproduced.
2
See also Smiles 1995, pp.104, 120 note 27.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Totnes Castle and Church from the River Dart 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-totnes-castle-and-church-from-the-river-dart-r1147277, accessed 25 April 2024.