Distant View of Plymouth

1813

Turner made this small drawing when picnicking near Devon, on England’s southern shore. Marked by precise detail and careful brushwork, Distant View of Plymouth is an example of Turner’s early style. As he grew older, Turner’s compositions became more abstract, focusing on nature’s uncontrollable violence and beauty. This is evident in the oil painting hanging nearby, Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) to Warn Steamboats of Shoal Water (1840), which is one of Turner’s most important works from his final decade.

Medium	oil on cream wove paper
Dimensions	Sheet: 6 x 9 1/4 in. (15.2 x 23.5 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.103
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	Off View

Image Caption

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Distant View of Plymouth, 1813, oil on cream wove paper. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.103

Select Bibliography

Leger Galleries. English Watercolours. Leger Galleries, London, November 11-December 24, 1981. 1981. Redding, Cyrus E. Fifty Years Recollections, Literary and Personal, with Observations on Men and Things. 3 vols. Vol. 1. London: Charles J. Skeet. 1858. Thornbury, Walter. The Life of J. M. T. Turner, R.A. 2nd edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1877. Finberg, Alex J. The Life of J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 2nd rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961. Mullaly, Terence. "The Essence of England." The Daily Telegraph. 12/02/1981. Chadwick, Anna-Mei. "Gallery Scene: UK." Connoisseur. 11/1981:170. Posnett, David, introd. Leger: A Century of Art Dealing, 1892-1992. London: The Leger Galleries, 1992. Wilton, Andrew. Turner, Girtin and Bonington: A New York Private Collection, Paintings, Watercolours, and Drawings. New York: Privately Published, 2001. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. J. M. W. Turner à l'occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council. Paris: Ministere de la Culture, Editions de la Réunion des Musées nationaux,1983. Wilton, Andrew. William Turner: Licht und Farbe. Köln: DuMont; Essen: Museum Folkwang, 2001. Mauclair, Camille. Turner. Paris: Hyperion, 1938. Jones, Robin Griffith. "Picture Notes." Turner Studies. v. 1, no. 2. 1981. Joll, Evelyn and Martin Butlin. Catalogue of the Paintings of J. M. W. Turner. Studies in British Art. 2. vols. London: Yale University Press. 1977. Clarke, Jay, ed. Landscape, Innovation, and Nostalgia: The Manton Collection of British Art. Williamstown, MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2012. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

John Edward Taylor (his sale, Christie’s, London, 5 July 1912, no. 100, as A View near the Coast, sold to Wallis & Son); [Wallis & Son (The French Gallery), London, from 1912]; [Knoedler, London, by 1939]; Charles E. Russell; private collection; sale, Christie’s, London, 30 June 1981, no. 88, as View over Plymouth Harbour, sold to Leger; [Leger Galleries, London, sold to Manton, 8 Dec. 1981]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (1981–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–7, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.