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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bamburgh Castle from the North-East 1797

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Recto:
Bamburgh Castle from the North-East 1797
D00957
Turner Bequest XXXIV 49
Pencil on white wove paper, 210 x 270 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘49’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXXIV 49’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is drawn with the page turned horizontally. In view of the interest that Turner took in both Tynemouth Priory (see under folio 34 recto; D00939; Turner Bequest XXXIV 33) and Dunstanburgh Castle (see under folio 47 recto; D00952; Turner Bequest XXXIV 45) as potential subjects for pictures, is it perhaps surprising that he seems to have done nothing with his notes of Bamburgh, an equally grand Northumberland coastal site, until much later in his career. A watercolour exhibited at the London Graphic Society in 1837 used this pencil note as the basis for a dramatic scene of storm and shipwreck (private collection).1 Having been in the collection of the Vanderbilt family in America for many years it was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 2007 (76). Turner’s preparatory studies in colour for this work are Tate D25457, D25506 and D36321 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 334, 382, CCCLXV 30).2
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.404 no.895.
2
See Hill 1996, pls.112–14.
Technical notes:
There are some splashes of blue ink across the page.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Bamburgh Castle from the North-East 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bamburgh-castle-from-the-north-east-r1150113, accessed 29 March 2024.