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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Borthwick Castle 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Borthwick Castle’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 85 Recto:
Borthwick Castle 1818
D13726
Turner Bequest CLXVII 77
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘wall’ centre; and possible but indecipherable inscription centre left
Inscribed in blue ink ‘77’ bottom left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 77’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted, this view of Borthwick Castle was taken from the north bank of the River Gore, and looks towards a row of houses in front of Borthwick Castle; the house on the right is visible in Turner’s watercolour for the Provincial Antiquities: Borthwick Castle, 1818 (Indianapolis Museum of Art).1
Turner made views of the castle from every viewpoint in preparation for his illustration in Scott’s Provincial Antiquities, selecting a view from the north-west as the basis for his design (see folio 84; D13724; CLXVII 76).

Thomas Ardill
April 2008

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, pp.425–6 no.1060.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Borthwick Castle 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2008, 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-borthwick-castle-r1132283, accessed 19 April 2024.