J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Looking north-west from the east side of Plymouth Sound, Drake’s Island is on the left with the Hamoaze beyond and the Citadel on the right. The disk over the horizon is presumably the setting summer sun. There is a similar view over Jennycliff Bay in the contemporary Ivy Bridge to Penzance sketchbook (Tate D08868; Turner Bequest CXXV 3a); see under Tate D08866 (Turner Bequest CXXV 2) in the same book for other Plymouth views. There is another drawing looking in the same direction in the later Plymouth, Hamoaze sketchbook (Tate D09281; Turner Bequest CXXXI 59).

Other definite and possible views of the Plymouth area are scattered through the present sketchbook on folios 21 verso, 88 verso, 101 recto, 178 recto, 195 recto and verso, 196 recto, 198 verso, 201 verso (D08402, D08530, D08555, D08694, D08717–D08719, D08722, D08727; CXXIII 21a, 85a, 98, 175, 192, 192a, 193, 195a, 198a). Nearby Saltash is recorded on folios 65 verso and 198 recto (D08487, D08721; CXXIII 62a, 195), and folios 211 recto and verso (D08742, D08743; CXXIII 208, 208a) may show a mooring on or near the Hamoaze (the Tamar Estuary). Views in and around Plympton, a little to the east, including one with Plymouth in the distance, are on folios 104 verso, 106 verso and 107 verso (D08561, D08565, D08567; CXXIII 101a, 103a, 104a).