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 > Corfe to Dartmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Corfe Castle: The Castle and Church from the North 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Corfe Castle: The Castle and Church from the North’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Corfe Castle: The Castle and Church from the North 1811
D08810
Turner Bequest CXXIV 3
Pencil on white wove paper, 170 x 209 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CXXIV – 3’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is from below East Hill, glimpsed on the left, looking south, with the tower of St Edward’s Church just visible in the village, otherwise hidden behind the castle’s mound. A similar viewpoint today is from across the level crossing on the Norden to Swanage railway line, behind the National Trust visitor centre and the valley of the Corfe River. The line cuts into the lower slope of East Hill, and it is difficult to judge Turner’s exact position.
There is a similar view on folio 4 recto (D08811). For other drawings of the castle and village, see the entry for folio 17 recto (D08826).
Technical notes:
Almost the whole sheet is very yellowed from prolonged display in the Third Loan Collection,1 with a sharp edge to the discolouration all round where the edges were protected by a slightly skewed mount.
1
See Warrell 1991, pp.46 (venues), 49 no.17 (the present work, as one of those ‘probably introduced as replacement items between 1904 and 1909’).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Corfe Castle: The Castle and Church from the North 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-corfe-castle-the-castle-and-church-from-the-north-r1137293, accessed 24 April 2024.