J.M.W. Turner
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Little Liber c.1823-6
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Artwork
Joseph Mallord William Turner The Mewstone c.1823-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Mewstone circa 1823–6
D17170
Turner Bequest CXCVI F
Turner Bequest CXCVI F
Watercolour on white wove paper, 244 x 381 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1810’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXCVI – F’ bottom right
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1810’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXCVI – F’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (122, reproduced).
1989
Summer Miscellany: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, July–September 1989 (no catalogue).
2001
William Turner: Licht und Farbe, Museum Folkwang, Essen, September 2001–January 2002, Kunsthaus Zürich, February–May 2002 (125, reproduced in colour).
2011
‘Skying’: Looking at Clouds, Tate Britain, London, September 2011–September 2012 (no catalogue).
Engraved:
(see main catalogue text)
(see main catalogue text)
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.599, CXCVI F, as ‘The Mewstone, off Plymouth Harbour’.
1913
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, p.388 under no.804, ‘The Mew-Stone’ (possibly referring to the present work; see main catalogue entry).
1966
Jack Lindsay, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work: A Critical Biography, London 1966, ill.30, as ‘The Mewstone, off Plymouth Harbour’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.95 under no.250.
1974
Gerald Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A. 1802–20: Genius of the Romantic, London 1974, p.136, reproduced (colour).
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, pp.389–90 no.773, reproduced, as circa 1825.
1988
Barbara Dawson, Turner in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 1988, pp.69, 70, fig.24, as ‘Colour beginning of “A ship against the Mew Stone...”’.
1989
Marcel-Etienne Dupret, ‘Turner’s Little Liber’, Turner Studies, vol.9, no.1, Summer 1989, p.41 under no.6.
1996
Gillian Forrester, Turner’s ‘Drawing Book’: The Liber Studiorum, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1996, pp.21, 146, pl.13 (colour), as circa 1823–5.
The Mewstone, Mew Stone or Great Mew Stone stands in Wembury Bay, Devon, on the south-eastern approach to Plymouth Sound. Turner sketched it from land and sea in the Plymouth, Hamoaze sketchbook (Tate D09275–7, D09279, D09448, D09450, D09452, D09454, D09458, D09460, D09462; Turner Bequest CXXXI 53, 54, 55, 57, 172a, 173a, 174a, 175a, 177a, 178a, 179a) on his visit to Devon in 1813. A watercolour of about 1814 (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin),1 showing the rock in stormy seas, was engraved in 1816 as The Mew Stone, at the Entrance of Plymouth Sound, Devonshire for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England (Tate impressions: T04383–T04385, T05392, T05393, T05970). A vigorous watercolour traditionally known as Storm off Margate (private collection)2 has been identified as another view.3
The present design has been described as a ‘modification’ of the Southern Coast composition, ‘specifically related’4 to the corresponding ‘Little Liber’ mezzotint. Alternatively, it has been treated by Finberg and others as a ‘colour beginning’ for the Dublin watercolour – that is, as a preparatory study rather than a development from it.5 Although the sheet is watermarked 1810, such loose ‘colour beginnings’ for completed watercolours tend to be associated with a rather later phase of Turner’s development, and stylistically the work seems compatible with the other ‘Little Liber’ studies gathered together in the present catalogue and dated by general consensus to the middle of the 1820s.
The composition was engraved in mezzotint,6 traditionally ascribed to Turner himself (see the ‘Little Liber’ introduction). There is no indication in the standard sources as to whether the copper or steel plate was one of those found in his studio after his death (again, see the Introduction), and there is only one proof impression known (British Museum, London); it is described by Rawlinson, who rather vaguely mentions ‘several sketches in the National Gallery’, while Dupret notes that the present watercolour is ‘particularly close to the print’.7
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.I, London 1908, p.cx, and vol.II 1913, pp.210, 388 no.804.
Verso:
Blank save for various adventitious splashes of watercolour. The corners are abraded from having previously been glued down.
Matthew Imms
November 2011
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘The Mewstone c.1823–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www