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 > Ivy Bridge to Penzance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fortifications at the Entrance of Fowey Harbour 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Fortifications at the Entrance of Fowey Harbour’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
Fortifications at the Entrance of Fowey Harbour 1811
D08890
Turner Bequest CXXV 19
Pencil on white wove paper, 166 x 208 mm
Stamped in black ‘CXXV – 19’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The medieval blockhouse at Polruan is seen to the south-west across the Fowey Estuary, from near its counterpart on the Fowey side. The drawing continues across the whole of folio 19 verso opposite (D08889; CXXV 18a), under which their history and setting and related drawings are discussed.
Finberg noted that the double-page sketch is the basis of the watercolour Entrance of Fowey Harbour, Cornwall of about 1817 (private collection),1 engraved in 1820 for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England2 (see the concordance of the series in the 1811 tour introduction). Eric Shanes has also noted Turner’s use of the same sketch for his watercolour of the Entrance to Fowey Harbour, Cornwall of about 1827 (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts),3 engraved in 1829 for the series Picturesque Views in England and Wales.4 The viewpoints are similar, but the Polruan fortification recorded in this part of the sketch is omitted from the England and Wales version, leaving only jagged rocks.
1
Wilton 1979, p.353 no.466.
2
Finberg 1909, I, p.355; see also Wilton 1979, p.353; Shanes 1981, p.152; and Shanes 1990, p.266.
3
Wilton 1979, p.393 no.801, reproduced.
4
Shanes 1979, p.155, and 1990 pp.178, 285 note 127.
Technical notes:
There is brown spotting at the top and the bottom right. A small tear to the left-hand edge has been repaired.

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Fortifications at the Entrance of Fowey Harbour 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-fortifications-at-the-entrance-of-fowey-harbour-r1137371, accessed 16 July 2024.