'Berry Pomeroy Castle', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Berry Pomeroy Castle

From Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CXXIII

Date 1811

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 117 x 75 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D08636

Turner Bequest CXXIII 142

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 145 Recto:

Berry Pomeroy Castle 1811

D08636
Turner Bequest CXXIII 142

Pencil on white wove writing paper, 117 x 75 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Mill dam’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘142’ bottom left upside-down
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 142’ top left upside-down

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

The ruined castle is seen from the north, showing the range above the North Terrace from near the mill pond in the valley of the Gatcombe Brook which skirts that side of the castle.1 Turner notes a ‘dam’ in the foreground, presumably a weir or sluice regulating the flow from the pond to the stream. There are slight indications of such a structure in other drawings made nearby.

For a discussion of Berry Pomeroy and other studies in this sketchbook, see the entry for folio 141 recto (D08628; CXXIII 138).

See local map, castle plan and ‘old print’ from a similar viewpoint in Deryck Seymour and Jack Hazzard, Berry Pomeroy Castle, Torquay 1982, pp.14, 18, 168 respectively.

Technical notes:

There is slight offsetting from the ink inscription on folio 144 verso opposite (D08635; CXXIII 141a).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

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.