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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and Isle of Wight 1795-1800 > South Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Brecon: The Castle and Bridge 1795

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Brecon: The Castle and Bridge’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 83 Recto:
Brecon: The Castle and Bridge 1795
D00653
Turner Bequest XXVI 91
Pencil on white wove paper, 203 x 264 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Brecknock Castle’ bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘XXVI 91’ bottom left, descending vertically
This sheet belongs with the Welsh drawings of 1795; Finberg suggested that it is the missing folio 42 he noted in 19091 (see the concordance in the sketchbook’s introduction). A finished watercolour of the subject executed about 1797, perhaps as a pupil’s copy drawing, was known to Finberg; it was acquired by him for stock at the Cotswold Gallery, 1922 and bought by H.F. Tomalin. Its current whereabouts is unknown;2 Yardley suggests that the watercolour is based on a study originally in the Hereford Court sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest XXXVIII), and now in Manchester Art Gallery (1917.92);3 this has been thought to be a student’s copy, and if so will have been made from the Cotswold Gallery watercolour; but it clearly relates to the present drawing.
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.51, XXVI 42, as ‘Missing’.
2
See Yardley 1985, p.60.
3
Nugent and Croal 1997, p.27 no. 6, reproduced in colour.
Technical notes:
The sheet is discoloured from prolonged exposure.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Brecon: The Castle and Bridge 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-brecon-the-castle-and-bridge-r1140972, accessed 20 April 2024.