J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Richmond Hill; Hastings to Margate ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1816-19

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner)’ c.1816-19
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Verso:
Two Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner) circa 1816–19
D10431
Turner Bequest CXL 11a
Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are two views of Windsor on this leaf, both continuing very slightly on folio 12 of the sketchbook (D10432) which has a further related sketch. For Windsor Castle in this sketchbook and a connection with Turner’s watercolour (British Museum, London)1 engraved by William Miller in 1831 for Picturesque Views in England and Wales, see note to folio 9 verso (D10427).
Not transcribed by Finberg, Turner’s inscriptions read:
Hope seems to smile
Offering a repose
Softning these mothers tears
And tumult wild
The child safe, and the mothers pride
Push with keen anguish to her body ...
See notes to folio 4 (D10416) for verse in this sketchbook related to The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire (Tate N00499)2 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817, and the historical background to the subject.

David Blayney Brown
July 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.397 no.829.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed. 1984, pp.100–1 no.135 (pl.137).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Two Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1816–19 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-sketches-of-windsor-castle-from-the-north-west-fragments-r1131414, accessed 19 April 2024.