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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > George IV’s visit to Edinburgh 1822 > King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Landscape, with Bay, Castle and Rocks in Mid-Distance 1821-2

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Landscape, with Bay, Castle and Rocks in Mid-Distance’ 1821-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 89 Verso:
Landscape, with Bay, Castle and Rocks in Mid-Distance 1821–2
D17667
Turner Bequest CC 89a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Blindstamped with the Turner Bequest stamp bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This design, made with the sketchbook inverted, is a variation on the composition study made on folio 88 verso (D17665). Ian Warrell has identified the source of this composition as Claude Lorrain’s (circa 1604/5–82) Landscape with the Port of Santa Marinella, circa 1639–40 (Petit Palais), and has shown it to be the basis for a composition across two connected oil sketches, Italian Landscape with Tower, Trees and Figures (Tate N02992)1 and Overlooking the Coast, with Classical Buildings (Tate N02991)2 (see folio 88 verso; D17665 for more information).3 In this version the same elements are present but seen from a little further away. The focal point is a towered building near the centre of the picture, seen between trees with a curved bay beyond and buildings to the left. In the foreground standing near architectural ruins are several figures.

Thomas Ardill
November 2008

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.178 no.307.
2
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.177 no.306.
3
See Ian Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, p.194.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Landscape, with Bay, Castle and Rocks in Mid-Distance 1821–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-landscape-with-bay-castle-and-rocks-in-mid-distance-r1133008, accessed 23 September 2024.