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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Caerlaverock Castle 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Caerlaverock Castle’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 53 Recto:
Caerlaverock Castle 1831
D25865
Turner Bequest CCLXVI 53
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 114 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘53’ top left running vertically ‘342’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVI 53’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned to left there are five or six sketches of Caerlaverock Castle and views nearby on this page. At the top is a view across the mouth of the River Nith from Caerlaverock. Part of the estuary is covered in mud banks and there are two boats.
Beneath this is a sketch of the castle gatehouse from due north (see a similar view on folio 50; D25859).
The third sketch down is inscribed ‘Crifel’, and shows Criffell with Waterloo Hill to its right with the Waterloo Monument at its summit. Criffell can be seen in several of the other sketches of Caerlaverock (folios 49 verso, 50, 51 and 51 verso; D2585, D25859, D25861, D25862) and again at the bottom of the present page.
In the centre of the page is another view of Caerlaverock Castle, this time from the west (see folio 52 verso), with Castle Wood at the left of the picture.
At the bottom of the page is a sketch of the side of a building that lies just to the north-east of the castle. This is now the castle visitor centre. Criffell can be seen in the background (unless it is a separate sketch).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Caerlaverock Castle 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-caerlaverock-castle-r1134232, accessed 18 April 2024.