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 Lydford Castle and St Petroc's Church from Lydford Gorge 1814

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lydford Castle and St Petroc's Church from Lydford Gorge’ 1814
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 82 Verso:
Lydford Castle and St Petroc’s Church from Lydford Gorge 1814
D09840
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 45
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 45’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Lydford Castle and the adjacent St Petroc’s Church are seen to the north-east across Lydford Gorge. There are several views of the castle and church and likely views in the gorge in the contemporary Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook (see under Tate D09510; Turner Bequest CXXXII 28); one of the sketches there (Tate D09514; Turner Bequest CXXXII 32) shows a similar view from a little further west, with the church tower aligned in front of the castle and the hills beyond consequently further to the left.
A 1798 aquatint of a Distant View of Lidford Castle by William Gilpin (Westcountry Studies Library, Exeter) shows much the same view, emphasising the wildness of the setting.
Technical notes:
There is a faint, near-vertical, apparently offset line to the right of the castle. The page is now bound as the verso of the leaf, with the Turner Bequest stamp upside down compared to the general foliation.

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Lydford Castle and St Petroc’s Church from Lydford Gorge 1814 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-lydford-castle-and-st-petrocs-church-from-lydford-gorge-r1147445, accessed 24 April 2024.