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Lot Essay
Studies of Plymouth appear in the 'Ivy Bridge to Penzance' sketchbook (TB CXXXV), while the Plymouth, Hamoaze sketchbook (TB CXXXI) includes drawings of Plymouth Sound and Citadel which were probably used both for the present drawing and for its untraced companion, Plymouth Sound, see A. Wilton, op.cit., no. 441.
The present watercolour is one of four subjects engraved in 1815 for a projected publication entitled The Rivers of Devon, by William Bernard Cooke. The engraving was exhibited by W.B. Cooke in 1821, with the subtitle 'a gale' and published on 1 March 1821 (illustrated Shanes 1981, no. 228, and Shanes 1990, no. 98).
Turner made a tour of Devon and Cornwall in 1811, and returned to the area in 1813, particularly to make sketches in and around Plymouth for the Rivers of Devon which, however, were never published as a series.
An incident recorded by Cyrus (?) Redding affords proof of Turner's concentration: 'We were standing outside the works on the lines at Plymouth, close under a battery of twenty-four pounders, which opened out three or four feet above our heads. I was startled by the shock, but Turner was unmoved. We were neither prepared for the concussion, but he showed none of the surprise I betrayed, being as unmoved at the sudden noise and involvement in the smoke as if nothing had happened' (C. Redding, 'The late Joseph Mallord William Turner', Fraser's Magazine, XLV, February 1852, p. 156, quoted by Shanes, 1981, p. 43).
The present watercolour is one of four subjects engraved in 1815 for a projected publication entitled The Rivers of Devon, by William Bernard Cooke. The engraving was exhibited by W.B. Cooke in 1821, with the subtitle 'a gale' and published on 1 March 1821 (illustrated Shanes 1981, no. 228, and Shanes 1990, no. 98).
Turner made a tour of Devon and Cornwall in 1811, and returned to the area in 1813, particularly to make sketches in and around Plymouth for the Rivers of Devon which, however, were never published as a series.
An incident recorded by Cyrus (?) Redding affords proof of Turner's concentration: 'We were standing outside the works on the lines at Plymouth, close under a battery of twenty-four pounders, which opened out three or four feet above our heads. I was startled by the shock, but Turner was unmoved. We were neither prepared for the concussion, but he showed none of the surprise I betrayed, being as unmoved at the sudden noise and involvement in the smoke as if nothing had happened' (C. Redding, 'The late Joseph Mallord William Turner', Fraser's Magazine, XLV, February 1852, p. 156, quoted by Shanes, 1981, p. 43).