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 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Clovelly from Buck's Mills 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Clovelly from Buck's Mills’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 226 Recto:
Clovelly from Buck’s Mills 1811
D08766
Turner Bequest CXXIII 223
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Lundy’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘223’ top left, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 223’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Eric Shanes has noted that this sketch is the basis for the watercolour Clovelly Bay of about 1822 (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin),1 engraved in 1824 for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England (see the concordance of the series in the 1811 tour introduction). He also mentions several related drawings in the contemporary Cornwall and Devon sketchbook (Tate D41322–D41324, D41346, D41347; Turner Bequest CXXV a 43, 44, 45, 64, 65).2 There are further views in that book (Tate D41370, D41373; Turner Bequest CXXV a 88, 90), and what may be a view of Buck’s Mills itself, looking up from the beach (Tate D41341; Turner Bequest CXXV a 60). A single view made in Clovelly itself is on folios 224 verso–225 recto (D41521, D08765) of the present sketchbook.
This drawing defines the overall composition of the watercolour, complete with foreground cliffs and donkeys, while the Cornwall and Devon studies provide supplementary details of the distant village and coastline. Some sixteen miles off the Devon coast beyond Clovelly, Lundy island is seen to the north-west (see also folios 201 recto and 250 verso; D08726, D08766; CXXIII 198, 247a). The foreground of the watercolour includes details not recorded here, including boats and a pool, perhaps for salting locally caught fish, and the structures on the left are clarified as lime kilns.3 For a lime kiln at Combe Martin, further along Turner’s Devon route, see folio 150 recto (D08646; CXXIII 147).
1
Wilton 1979, p.354 no.472, reproduced.
2
Shanes 1981, p.152.
3
See ibid., p.27.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Clovelly from Buck’s Mills 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-clovelly-from-bucks-mills-r1137245, accessed 26 April 2025.