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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Peak Cavern, Castleton; Sketch Map of the Peak District; with Inscription by Turner: ?A Draft of Poetry ?1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Verso:
?Peak Cavern, Castleton; Sketch Map of the Peak District; with Inscription by Turner: ?A Draft of Poetry ?1831
D22186
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 20a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Partial watermark ‘R Ba | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil top left (see main catalogue entry) and ‘Sheffield’ bottom right, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight sketch appears to show the inside of a cave, perhaps Peak Cavern below Peveril Castle at Castleton, as seen on adjacent pages. For other views of the castle, village and cave, see under folio 1 verso (D22152).
At the top left are four hastily written lines and a further word or two of effectively illegible prose or verse; only the occasional letter or short word such as ‘self’ and ‘and’ can be made out, although the first two words may be ‘Lo Twilight’ (or ‘Twylight’ as Turner has it elsewhere), which would indicate a further variation on the scraps of verse concerning the Evening Star scattered through this sketchbook and discussed under folio 71 recto (D22279).
At the bottom right the word ‘Sheffield’ appears, inverted relative to the main inscription and sketch, in a slight continuation of the sketch map of the Peak District on folio 21 recto opposite (D22187).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Peak Cavern, Castleton; Sketch Map of the Peak District; with Inscription by Turner: ?A Draft of Poetry ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-peak-cavern-castleton-sketch-map-of-the-peak-district-with-r1148832, accessed 28 March 2024.