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 and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devon Rivers, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner North Gate, Launceston, with the Castle Above 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘North Gate, Launceston, with the Castle Above’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 108 Recto:
North Gate, Launceston, with the Castle Above 1814
D09598
Turner Bequest CXXXII 108
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 152 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘108’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXII – 108’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Launceston’s West Gate having been demolished in 1812, shortly before Turner’s visit,1 he appears to show the North Gate, demolished in 1832,2 looking north up the hill towards the castle; the South Gate still stands. Subsequent changes to Northgate Street make the exact viewpoint difficult to establish. The gateway appears to be shown in the distant views on folio 111 recto (D09601), in the contemporary Devonshire Rivers, No. 3, and Wharfedale sketchbook (Tate D09873 (Turner Bequest CXXXIV 72), and silhouetted in the watercolour of Launceston, Cornwall of about 1826 (private collection),3 engraved in 1827 for the series Picturesque Views in England and Wales. For further views of Launceston, see under folio 106 recto (D09596).
1
Peter Herring and Bridget Gillard, Launceston: HES Report No 2005R051, Truro 2005, p.17; on line at Historic Cornwall, accessed 13 June 2014, http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/csus/towns/launceston/csus_launceston_report_2005R051.pdf.
2
Ibid.
3
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.392 no.792, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
June 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘North Gate, Launceston, with the Castle Above 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-north-gate-launceston-with-the-castle-above-r1147147, accessed 23 April 2024.