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 and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?St Mary Magdalene's Church, Chulmleigh, above the Little Dart River 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?St Mary Magdalene's Church, Chulmleigh, above the Little Dart River’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Recto:
?St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Chulmleigh, above the Little Dart River 1814
D09545
Turner Bequest CXXXII 61
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘61’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 61’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing may show St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Chulmleigh. The village lies in north Devon, north of Dartmoor and about half way between Tiverton to the east (see the contemporary Devon Rivers, No.2 sketchbook; Tate D09768, D09769; Turner Bequest CXXXIII 73a, 74), which was possibly the starting point of the present tour (see the overall Introduction) and Barnstaple (see under folio 66 recto; D09550), the nearest identified subject to the north-west.
If the identification is correct, the setting remains very rural. The wooden footbridge bridge at the foot of the hill, over the Little Dart River, has been replaced and is now hidden by trees. Turner’s composition is comparable with that in the 1862 painting Near Chulmleigh, Devon (Chulmleigh from the River Dart, Devon) by John Wallace Tucker (1808–1869) at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. Rock Hill, the lane leading up to the village from the bridge, is now part of the Ridge and Valley Walk route.
The church appears to be shown again from further east on folio 62 recto (D09546).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Chulmleigh, above the Little Dart River 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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-st-mary-magdalenes-church-chulmleigh-above-the-little-dart-r1147092, accessed 30 January 2025.