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 The Laira near Plymouth, with a ?Ruined Building 1813

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Laira near Plymouth, with a ?Ruined Building’ 1813
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 231 Verso:
The Laira near Plymouth, with a ?Ruined Building 1813
D09388
Turner Bequest CXXXI 142a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 157 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this drawing is part of a sequence working in from the back cover of the sketchbook, which correlates with accounts of a voyage Turner and others made from Plymouth south-east to Burgh Island, returning by land from Kingsbridge (see folio 252 verso; D09430; Turner Bequest CXXXI 163a) towards Plymouth. The sequence begins on folio 275 (D09476; Turner Bequest CXXXI 186a), under which the overall trip is discussed, and may extend as far as folio 228 verso (Tate D09382; Turner Bequest CXXXI 139a). The subject here appears to be the Laira (the Plym Estuary), as seen on folio 232 verso (D09390; Turner Bequest CXXXI 143a) and subsequent pages, probably looking south-west towards Plymouth, although the viewpoint and orientation are uncertain, as is the identity of the apparently ruined building in the foreground.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Laira near Plymouth, with a ?Ruined Building 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-the-laira-near-plymouth-with-a-ruined-building-r1148118, accessed 24 April 2024.