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 > Review at Portsmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tamar Valley, with Prospect Tower on the Skyline 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Tamar Valley, with Prospect Tower on the Skyline’ 1814
Folio 16 Recto:
The Tamar Valley, with Prospect Tower on the Skyline 1814
D10002
Turner Bequest CXXXVI 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 82 x 119 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘16’ bottom left, descending vertically (smudged)
Stamped in black ‘CXXXVI – 16’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this is a sketch of the River Tamar meandering through the rolling hills of the Tamar Valley which is thick with foliage and vegetation. The tower on the skyline in the background of the right–hand side of the page may be the Prospect Tower on the Cotehele Estate.
There are two other depictions of Prospect Tower on folio 15 recto and verso (D10001, D40831). Turner made further illustrations in the Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D09656, D09659; CXXXII 141, 142a) and in the Vale of Heathfield sketchbook (D10265; CXXXVII 43a).
Views along the Tamar Valley in this sketchbook run from folio 3 to the present page (D09989–D10002).
Verso:
Blank

Vanessa Otim
March 2025

How to cite

Vanessa Otim, ‘The Tamar Valley, with Prospect Tower on the Skyline 1814’, catalogue entry, March 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/the-tamar-valley-with-prospect-tower-on-the-skyline-r1213906, accessed 31 July 2026.