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

Kenilworth Castle is seen from the west, with the Strong Tower and Saintlowe Tower flanking the Great Hall on the left and the Great Tower rising beyond. Gaunt’s Tower and Leicester’s Building, on the south-eastern corner of the complex, are to the right, with the spire of St Nicholas’s Church in the distance. There is a small detail of window tracery above the main sketch. At the bottom right, roughly partitioned by pencil lines, is a rudimentary profile of the castle beyond trees, which appears to be from a similar viewpoint.

Most of the sketches between folios 27 recto (D22024) and 37 verso (D22045) show Kenilworth. For the history of the castle and Turner’s subsequent watercolour, which Eric Shanes has described as a ‘synthesis’ of sketches between here and 37 verso,1 see under folio 29 recto opposite (D22028), showing a view from a little further south.