J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Forder, with Trematon Castle Above 1813

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Recto:
Forder, with Trematon Castle Above 1813
D09256
Turner Bequest CXXXI 37
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘37’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXXI – 37’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketches between folio 36 recto (D09255) and folio 43 recto (D09263) were made in the vicinity of Trematon Castle, above the St Germans or Lynher River west of the River Tamar and Plymouth. 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. Turner’s viewpoint here, with the page turned horizontally, is the lane south of St Stephen’s Hill in Forder, near Saltash, looking south-west over the bridge crossing the entrance to Forder Lake, with the castle above. The buildings in the middle distance remain recognisable, with what is now The Old Mill at the centre below the castle, which can still be glimpsed among the trees now covering this side of the mound. There is a similar view on folio 38 recto (D09257).
Anne Lyles has noted this sketch as a source for the watercolour Trematon Castle, Cornwall of about 1828 (private collection),1 engraved in 1830 for the series Picturesque Views in England and Wales, although the viewpoint is different; see under folio 43 recto (D09263).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.396 no.822.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Forder, with Trematon Castle Above 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-forder-with-trematon-castle-above-r1147983, accessed 25 April 2024.