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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Berry Pomeroy Castle 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Berry Pomeroy Castle’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 145 Recto:
Berry Pomeroy Castle 1811
D08636
Turner Bequest CXXIII 142
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 117 x 75 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Mill dam’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘142’ bottom left upside-down
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 142’ top left upside-down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The ruined castle is seen from the north, showing the range above the North Terrace from near the mill pond in the valley of the Gatcombe Brook which skirts that side of the castle.1 Turner notes a ‘dam’ in the foreground, presumably a weir or sluice regulating the flow from the pond to the stream. There are slight indications of such a structure in other drawings made nearby.
For a discussion of Berry Pomeroy and other studies in this sketchbook, see the entry for folio 141 recto (D08628; CXXIII 138).
1
See local map, castle plan and ‘old print’ from a similar viewpoint in Deryck Seymour and Jack Hazzard, Berry Pomeroy Castle, Torquay 1982, pp.14, 18, 168 respectively.
Technical notes:
There is slight offsetting from the ink inscription on folio 144 verso opposite (D08635; CXXIII 141a).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Berry Pomeroy Castle 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-berry-pomeroy-castle-r1137113, accessed 26 April 2024.