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 > Somerset and North Devon Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lynton from Barna Barrow 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lynton from Barna Barrow’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lynton from Barna Barrow 1811
D08959
Turner Bequest CXXVI 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 200 x 324 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with colour or vegetation notes ‘W’ and ‘G’ at various points in the drawing and ‘Linton’ towards right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXVI 13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
On the right the coast road curves towards Countisbury, hidden beyond. Turner’s viewpoint is near the modern Barna Barrow car park, some three hundred metres above sea level. On the left is the deep valley of the East Lyn River, disappearing behind the hill at the centre of the drawing. The skyline terminates on the right at Hollerday Hill, the coastal headland sheltering Lynmouth and Lynton (for which see under D08948; CXXVI 3), which Turner has noted. The letters elsewhere presumably stand for ‘woods’ and ‘grass’. There is a view from the road west of Countisbury on D08960 (Turner Bequest CXXVI 14).
Technical notes:
There are five sets of stitch holes near the left-hand edge, and a small hole to the lower right of the centre.
Verso:
Blank. The cluster of faint, dark marks at the top left appears to be a cat’s paw print. There are similar marks on D08960 (Turner Bequest CXXVI 14). Such prints are occasionally found on Bequest drawings, apparently left by the Manx cats which wandered in Turner’s studio in later years.1

Matthew Imms
January 2011

1
See James Hamilton, Turner: A Life, London 1997, p.304.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Lynton from Barna Barrow 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-lynton-from-barna-barrow-r1137556, accessed 22 November 2024.