'Castle Upnor', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Castle Upnor

From Studies for Published 'England and Wales' Subjects

Date c.1829-30

MediumWatercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 330 x 551 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D25246

Turner Bequest CCLXIII 124

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

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Castle Upnor c.1829–30

D25246
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 124

Watercolour on white wove paper, 330 x 551 mm
Watermark ‘T Edmonds 1825’
Inscribed by Turner ‘[?H Water]’ top right
Inscribed in red ink ‘124’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 124’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Exhibition history

1936

Watercolours from the Turner Bequest [Loan Series G], Empire Loan Collections Society, National Gallery, Cape Town, May 1936–June 1937 (no catalogue but frame number 25, as ‘Sunset over Water’).

1965

[Display of watercolours from the Turner Bequest], Tate Gallery, London, ?–?March 1965 (no catalogue, as ‘Sunset on lake’).

1983

J.M.W. Turner: Studies for Finished Watercolours (c.1825–40): Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, January–June 1983 (no catalogue, as ‘Sunset on lake’).

1983

J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (213, reproduced in colour, as ‘Étude de colours: coucher de soleil avec le château de Flint’, ?c.1830–4).

1988

Summer Miscellany: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, July–October 1988 (no catalogue, as ‘Sunset, Flint Castle’).

1991

Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, Tate Gallery, London, January–May 1991 (41, reproduced in colour, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: preparatory study’, c.1829–30).

1995

Making & Meaning: Turner: The Fighting Temeraire, National Gallery, London, July–October 1995 (30, reproduced in colour, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: Preparatory Study’, c.1829–30).

2000

Pure as Italian Air: Turner and Claude Lorrain, Clore Gallery, Tate Britain, London, November 2000–April 2001 (no catalogue).

2002

Turner et le Lorrain, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy, December 2002–March 2003 (77, reproduced in colour, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: preparatory study’, c.1829–30).

2008

¿¿¿¿¿¿ [Turner] (1775–1851), Pushkin Museum of Art, Moscow, November 2008–February 2009 (64, reproduced in colour, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: Preparatory Study’, c.1829–30).

2009

Turner from the Tate Collection, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, April–July 2009 (64, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: Preparatory Study’, c.1829–30).

2011

William Turner. Maler der Elemente / Turner and the Elements, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, June–September 2011, Muzeum Narodowe, Krakow, October–January 2012, Turner Contemporary, Margate, January–May 2012 (77, exhibited at Margate only, reproduced in colour, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: Preparatory Study’, c.1829–30).

References

1909

A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.823, CCLXIII 124, as ‘Sunset on lake’. c.1820–30.

1983

Andrew Wilton in John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, pp.269–70 no.213, reproduced in colour, as ‘Étude de colours: coucher de soleil avec le château de Flint’. ?c.1830–4.

1991

Ian Warrell, Turner: The Fourth Decade: Watercolours 1820–1830, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1991, reproduced in colour p.20, pp.41 under no.29, 48 no.41, reproduced.

1995

Judy Egerton in Egerton, Martin Wyld and Ashok Roy, Making & Meaning: Turner: The Fighting Temeraire, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 1995, pp.54, 135 no.30, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: Preparatory Study’. c.1829–30, pl.31 (colour).

1997

Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.96, p.105 (p.96 Appendix I under ‘England and Wales Series’, as ‘Study for Castle Upnor, Kent’. ?c.1831, p.105 Appendix II, as ‘Study: Castle Upnor, Kent?’).

1999

Peter Bower, Turner’s Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of his Drawing Papers 1820–1851, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, p.85 under no.45. as c.1831.

2002

Ian Warrell in Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, pp.149–51 no.77, reproduced in colour, 197, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: preparatory study’. c.1829–30.

2011

Inés Richter-Musso, ‘Fusion’ in Richter-Musso, Ortrud Westheider and others, Turner and the Elements, exhibition catalogue, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg 2011, pp.[208], 213 no.77, reproduced in colour, as ‘Castle Upnor, Kent: Preparatory Study’. c.1829–30.

Finberg suggested this colour study’s inscription, which appears to be ‘H Water’,1 reads ‘N. Wales’,2 presumably influencing Andrew Wilton’s identification of the subject as Flint Castle.3 A watercolour of Flint Castle, North Wales of about 1834 (National Gallery Wales, Cardiff)4 was engraved in 1836 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T05873, T06121), and there is a similar watercolour of the scene from about 1830 (private collection).5 The relationships of castle, shore, sun and water are comparable.

However, Ian Warrell has since recognised this as relating directly to the watercolour Castle Upnor, Kent of about 1831 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester),6 engraved in 1833 for England and Wales (Tate impression: T06102); the castle is based on a drawing in the Medway sketchbook (Tate D17405; Turner Bequest CXCIX 23a), and the overall view on Tate D17501 and D17502 (Turner Bequest CXCIX 87a–88) in the same book.7 Warrell observes that Turner here establishes the ‘bare essentials’ of the scene, ‘concentrating ... on exactly how the golden sunlight will pervade his design’.8 Inés Richter-Musso describes the work as ‘almost abstract. A glittering sun has been positioned ... so that the viewer cannot help but gaze directly on it ... The effect is comparable to an overexposed photograph.’9

Eric Shanes proposes another sheet (Tate D25276; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 154) as a variant Castle Upnor design. See also the introductions to the present subsection of identified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this work has been assigned.

As given in Egerton 1995, p.135.

Finberg 1909, II, p.823.

Wilton 1983, p.270; Turner’s inscription transcribed ibid., p.269, as ‘N Water (ou Wales)’.

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.401 no.868, reproduced.

Ibid., pp.403–4 no.885, reproduced.

Ibid., p.399 no.847, reproduced.

Warrell 1991, p.48.

Warrell 2002, p.197.

Richter-Musso 2011, p.[208].

Technical notes:
Peter Bower notes that this is a half sheet from a batch of unbleached paper made by the Thomas Edmonds Mill at Rye Mill, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.1 There are heavy pencil marks, presumably made as indications for mounting, excluding about 35 mm from the top and about 130 mm of the right-hand side. Shanes relates the paper to other ‘colour beginning’ sheets (Tate D25302, D25346, D25347, D25447; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 180, 224, 225, 324).2

Bower 1999, p.85 under no.45 and note 2; for Edmonds see also pp.83–4.

Shanes 1996, p.96.

Verso:
Blank, save for an area of grey watercolour wash at the bottom right corner and inscriptions: in pencil by ?Turner ‘40’ towards centre right, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘AB 93 P’ towards bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram above ‘CCLXIII – 124’ bottom right; and inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII 124’ towards bottom right.

Ian Warrell notes that this sheet was grouped by John Ruskin with others in a parcel marked ‘Colour effects. finer’.1

Matthew Imms
March 2013

Warrell 1991, p.41.

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 2013.