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 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Calstock Church and the Tamar Valley towards Gunnislake 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Calstock Church and the Tamar Valley towards Gunnislake’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Recto:
Calstock Church and the Tamar Valley towards Gunnislake 1814
D09835
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 40
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1811’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Calstock’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘40’ bottom right (very faint)
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 40’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is from high on the ridge above the River Tamar north of Calstock, looking up the river to Gunnislake. As Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk note, trees (and high hedges) now impede the prospects from around St Andrew’s Church, but they reproduce a painting by R. Gallon showing a clear view of the church and valley in about 1900.
There is a view in the same direction from further up the valley to the north in the contemporary Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D09660; CXXXII 143), and a view to the west from near the church on folio 42 recto of the present book (D09836; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 41), which may formerly have been bound immediately after the present page; see the entry for D09836 for more on this point and the subject in general.
Technical notes:
Tears at the bottom centre and towards the top of the right-hand edge have been repaired.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Calstock Church and the Tamar Valley towards Gunnislake 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-calstock-church-and-the-tamar-valley-towards-gunnislake-r1147426, accessed 23 September 2024.