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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Roxburgh Castle, Near Kelso 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Verso:
Roxburgh Castle, Near Kelso 1831
D41233
Pencil on white wove paper, 59 x 96 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Thornton from | Roxbr’ left running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook inverted is a view of Roxburgh Castle seen from the east. The sketch relates to similar views in the Abbotsford sketchbook (Tate D25989–D25992; Turner Bequest CCLXVII 36a–38; see D25967; CLXVII 22a for more information).
Finberg’s reading of Turner’s inscription – ‘Thornton from Roxbr.’ – provides the clue to the identity of the sketch.1 But the rest of the inscription has left scholars puzzled. As David Wallace-Hadrill notes: ‘Thornton. Village 6m SW of Berwick?’2 The village of Thornton is also very close to Innerwick Castle, which Turner also drew in this sketchbook (folio 8; D25655), and Thornton Burn which flows alongside the ruins. However, there is no apparent link between the two sites, which lie about 25 miles away from each other.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.851, CCLXV 12[a].
2
David Wallace-Hadrill, ‘Berwick CCLXV checklist’, [circa 1992], Tate catalogue files.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Roxburgh Castle, Near Kelso 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, 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-roxburgh-castle-near-kelso-r1134027, accessed 29 March 2024.