'Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland

Date c.1837

MediumWatercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 487 x 612 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D25457

Turner Bequest CCLXIII 334

On loan to Carré d'Art, Musée d'art Contemporain (Nimes, France)

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland c.1837

D25457
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 334

Watercolour on white wove paper, 487 x 612 mm
Watermark ‘C Ansell | 1828’
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 334’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Exhibition history

References

As discussed in the introduction to the present section, this is one of four identified ‘colour beginnings’ for a large watercolour of Bamborough Castle (private collection)1 exhibited at the Graphic Society, London, in 1837; the others are Tate D25456, D25506 and D36321 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 333, 382, CCCLXV 30).2

The present study concentrates on the storm clouds above the coast on the left, counterbalanced by the castle, a glowing blank to the right. There is no sign of the boat struggling in the waves, the rocky beach in the right foreground or the figures introduced into the finished design.

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.404 no.895 as ?c.1840; see ‘Bamborough Revisited’, Turner Society News, no.107, December 2007, p.1, reproduced in colour.

See Hill 1996, pp.78, 188, 191, Shanes 1997, p.93, and Piggott 2008, p.17.

Technical notes:

The area corresponding to the castle has been left blank or washed clean. There has been some lifting of the dark washes forming the clouds above the centre.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 334’ above Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII, 334’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
November 2012

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.