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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North Wales 1799-1801 > Drawings Related to the Welsh Tour of > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Traeth Mawr, looking East towards Y Cnicht and Moelwyn Mawr c.1799-1800

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Traeth Mawr, looking East towards Y Cnicht and Moelwyn Mawr’ c.1799-1800
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Traeth Mawr, looking East towards Y Cnicht and Moelwyn Mawr c.1799–1800
D03647
Turner Bequest LX a F
Pencil and watercolour, 545 x 764 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman 1794’
Inscribed by Turner in brown ink ‘46’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LX (a) – F’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The identification of this view is uncertain. Exhibited in Turner in Wales in 1984 under the present title, it was formerly thought to show a view looking towards Snowdon and the Pass of Llanberis, with Elidir Fawr and Moel Eilio. However, the broad sandflats in the foreground of the scene suggest the estuary of the Glaslyn, known as Traeth Mawr or ‘Great Beach’ until reclaimed under the drainage schemes of William Madocks, who created Porthmadog in the early years of the nineteenth century; see the entry for the note at the beginning of the 1798 Hereford Court sketchbook (Tate D01247; Turner Bequest XXXVIII, recto of front flyleaf).
Technical notes:
There are traces of a vertical centre fold.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘?Traeth Mawr, looking East towards Y Cnicht and Moelwyn Mawr c.1799–1800 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-traeth-mawr-looking-east-towards-y-cnicht-and-moelwyn-mawr-r1180059, accessed 21 November 2024.