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

The prominent block at the centre is the castle gatehouse, seen from the south-east, with the surviving turret of the keep beyond. The small building in the foreground appears to be the old castle mill, now ruined. This side of the site is now largely screened by trees. There is a similar view from a little further away on folio 90 verso (D12442).

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

Technical notes:

There is some rubbing and a slight impression from the brass teeth anchoring the sketchbook’s rear clasp inside the back cover opposite (D40923). The number ‘2’ is similar to that on the verso of the modern sheet inserted opposite the inside back cover of the contemporary Raby sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLVI; see the introduction to the tour), and may have been inscribed when the books were restored at the British Museum in the 1930s.