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 Plymouth Sound from Oreston 1813

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Plymouth Sound from Oreston’ 1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 90 Recto:
Plymouth Sound from Oreston 1813
D09315
Turner Bequest CXXXI 90
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘90’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXXI – 90’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this view is to the west from the Oreston area along the Cattewater past Turnchapel, with the tower of Mount Batten at the centre, Mount Edgcumbe beyond across Plymouth Sound, and the Citadel in outline on the right. 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.
This sketch has been tentatively noted as a source for the watercolour Plymouth, Devonshire of about 1830 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London),1 engraved in 1832 for the series Picturesque Views in England and Wales,2 in a ‘synthesis’ with drawings in the Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08874, D08875, D08877, D08879; Turner Bequest CXXV 9, 10, 11, 12),3 although the watercolour shows a view looking south rather than westwards.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.397 no.835, reproduced.
2
Shanes 1979, p.156.
3
Ibid., p.155.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Plymouth Sound from Oreston 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-plymouth-sound-from-oreston-r1148043, accessed 19 September 2024.