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 1813 > Plymouth, Hamoaze Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Shipping in Plymouth Sound off Mount Batten, with Penlee Point Beyond 1813

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Shipping in Plymouth Sound off Mount Batten, with Penlee Point Beyond’ 1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Recto:
Shipping in Plymouth Sound off Mount Batten, with Penlee Point Beyond 1813
D09233
Turner Bequest CXXXI 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with colour notes ‘R’, ‘Sea Light’, ‘Blue’, ‘Light yellow L’ from left to right across drawing
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘16’ bottom right, descending vertically, and ‘6’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXXI – 16’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, here Turner looks to the open sea to the south-west from the Mount Batten shore of Plymouth Sound, with Penlee Point in the distance at the centre. There are various small craft moored offshore, with an armed naval vessel towards the left, and what appear to be figures on the shore at the lower centre. The comparatively rare annotations show Turner fixing a particular, transient effect of light and weather, although the subject was not developed elsewhere. The sketch on folio 15 recto (D09232) shows Mount Edgcumbe from a similar viewpoint, looking west.
The subjects as far as folio 127 recto (D09358) are all identified or presumed sites within a few miles in and around Plymouth, suggesting a series of fairly short excursions.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Shipping in Plymouth Sound off Mount Batten, with Penlee Point Beyond 1813 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-shipping-in-plymouth-sound-off-mount-batten-with-penlee-r1147960, accessed 20 April 2024.