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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Midlands 1794-1802 > Drawings Made on the Midland Tour > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Newark, with the Church and Castle, from the North-West 1794

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Newark, with the Church and Castle, from the North-West’ 1794
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
View of Newark, with the Church and Castle, from the North-West 1794
D00360
Turner Bequest XXII G
Pencil on white wove paper, 213 x 276 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXII G’ bottom left, descending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The parish church of St Mary Magdalene is one of the largest and most impressive in the country; its steeple at 242 feet (74 metres) is one of the highest. The castle, dating from the eleventh century and rebuilt and enlarged throughout the Middle Ages, was slighted after the defeat of Charles I during the Civil War in the 1640s.
No finished work based on this drawing is known, but another drawing, showing the castle from a different, closer viewpoint is Tate D00700 (Turner Bequest XXVIII O), which served as the basis for a watercolour of about 1796 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).1 A watercolour of an old house in Newark with the church tower and steeple beyond, dating from about 1794–5, is in a private collection.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.318 no.168, reproduced.
Technical notes:
The sheet is irregular, with the top edge sloping down to the right.
Verso:
Blank; a slight blue paint blot; the sheet stained along two edges; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘View of Newark, with the Church and Castle, from the North-West 1794 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-view-of-newark-with-the-church-and-castle-from-the-north-r1141073, accessed 24 April 2024.