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 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Scarborough Castle from Inland 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Scarborough Castle from Inland’ 1816
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 46 Recto:
Scarborough Castle from Inland 1816
D09866
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 65
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Inscribed by Turner ‘Path’ and ‘Road’ bottom centre
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 65’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner looks to the east, with Scarborough Castle descending towards the North Sea on the skyline. The approaches to the castle are now largely built over, though glimpses of the view can be seen from Castle Road and Longwestgate; Turner shows a rural prospect, with a cow lurking by the trees on the left.
There is a closer view of the castle from a similar angle in the Scarborough 1 sketchbook (Tate D11917; Turner Bequest CL 3) and comparable views in the same book (Tate D11940; Turner Bequest CL 21) and in the Scarborough 2 sketchbook (Tate D11960–D11962; Turner Bequest CLI 8, 9, 10). As David Hill notes in his entry for it, D11940 bears similar inscriptions, and may have been made on the same occasion, likely to have been in 1816; see also the similar comments under Tate D11972 (Turner Bequest CLI 18) in Scarborough 2.
Turner had visit the town on numerous occasions over the years, first making drawings in the Dunbar and Chester sketchbooks of 1801 (Tate; Turner Bequest LIV, LXXXII), and a handful of finished watercolours culminated in Scarborough of about 1825 (Tate D18142; Turner Bequest CCVIII I),1 engraved in 1826 for the Ports of England.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.387, no.751, reproduced.
Verso:
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Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Scarborough Castle from Inland 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-scarborough-castle-from-inland-r1147405, accessed 26 April 2024.