Joseph Mallord William Turner Carthamartha and Bishop's Rock on the River Tamar 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 127 Recto:
Carthamartha and Bishop’s Rock on the River Tamar 1814
D09630
Turner Bequest CXXXII 127
Turner Bequest CXXXII 127
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Mt Pleasant | Goold [?Esq]’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘127’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 127’ bottom right
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Mt Pleasant | Goold [?Esq]’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘127’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 127’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.375, CXXXII 127, as ‘“Mt. Pleasant. Goolder.” River Tamar near Wier [sic] Head’.
2001
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk, Research/Feasibility Study for Gunnislake Turner Trail, [Gunnislake] 2001, reproduced p.50 as ‘Mount Pleasant Goulder (River Tamar near Wier [sic] Head?)’, pp.50–1.
2009
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk, Turner in the Tamar Valley: Following in Turner’s Footsteps along the River Tamar, Drakewalls 2009, p.55, reproduced as ‘Mount Pleasant Goulder (River Tamar near Wier [sic] Head?)’.
Diana Cook and Dorothy Kirk have identified the view as of Carthamartha and Bishop’s Rock;1 for their relative situation on the Tamar see under folio 126 recto (D09628). Turner’s viewpoint is near Dunterton, west of Endsleigh Cottage (see folio 129 verso; D09634) on the Devon side, looking to the south-west up a loop of the river which flows down from the centre, having entered the valley from the north beyond the trees to the right. The building on the horizon at the centre is at Carthamartha, where scattered farm buildings stand today beyond the woods above Carthamartha Rocks. Bishop’s Rock is towards the left, although not clearly distinguished.
The lettering of an 1823 engraving of Cartha Martha Rocks by F.C. Lewis, showing virtually the same view, cites ‘J. Gould Esq.’ as the owner of the rocks,2 which appears to account in part for Turner’s inscription. There is a ‘Mount Pleasant’ to the north of Lezant, about two miles north-west of Carthamartha and well outside the present field of view, so Turner may simply have been making a note of another local site.
For other views along the Tamar Valley, see under folio 114 verso (D09606).
Matthew Imms
June 2014
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Carthamartha and Bishop’s Rock on the River Tamar 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www