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

This is part of a two-page sketch, continuing to the right on folio 78 verso opposite (D12418) towards the church at Ovingham. Turner’s focus in the present half is Prudhoe Castle, with Orchard Hill to its left, seen to the south-west across the River Tyne from the north bank near the Hermitage on the road between Wylam and Ovingham. The broad southern bank below the castle is now heavily industrialised and flanked by the Newcastle to Carlisle railway.

There are other views of the castle from across the Tyne on folios 77 verso–78 recto, 79 verso–80 recto and 80 verso–81 recto (D12416, D12417, D12420–D12423), and from close up on folios 89 verso, 90 verso, 91 verso, 92 verso and 93 verso (D12440, D12442, D12444, D12446, D12448). For the history of the building and Turner’s later watercolour, see the entry for D12417.