Room 1: Turner's West Country
Sketchbooks
open at f.27: Pendennis Castle and Entrance of Falmouth Harbour
Tate
CollectionThis is a rare example of Turner making a coloured drawing in the sketchbooks used in his West Country tours. His normal practice was to work only in pencil, especially when on the move.
These drawings of Sharpham (down river from Totnes on the river Dart) seem to have been taken from mid-stream. They may be tied in with a letter Turner wrote to his Plymouth colleague, the painter AB Johns, in the autumn of 1814, in which he mentions a blustery trip down the river.
Ancillary materials
Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
Henry Woollcombe was at the centre of cultural life in Plymouth and the founder of the Plymouth Institution in 1812. The entry for 27 August 1813 records his first meeting with Turner at the home of William Eastlake, a close associate of Woollcombe and father of the painter, Charles Eastlake.
Uundated but probably April 1814
Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
Woollcombe's letter to his sister records Turner’s intention to make a visit to Devon in the summer of 1814.
Dated 26 October 1815
Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
Woollcombe and others wanted to promote the arts in Plymouth by mounting exhibitions and inaugurated the first of these in 1815. This kind of activity was still something of a rarity outside London. Turner sent two of his recent paintings to help make the endeavour a success: Bligh Sand, Near Sheerness and Jason.