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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Hereford Court Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ludlow Castle from the North-West, with the River Teme in the Foreground 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ludlow Castle from the North-West, with the River Teme in the Foreground’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 96 Recto:
Ludlow Castle from the North-West, with the River Teme in the Foreground 1798
D01261
Turner Bequest XXXVIII 11a
Pencil and watercolour on white-wove paper, 229 x 332 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘X’ near centre in the drawing twice, on arch of bridge and on wall of house
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram left of centre in coloured area
Stamped in black ‘XXXVIII 11a’ bottom left, descending vertically
Ludlow is dominated by its castle, which dates from the early twelfth century; after Chepstow (see folio 14 recto; D01260; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 11), ‘the largest and best-preserved in the whole of the Welsh Marches’,1 it rises imposingly on a hill in a loop of the River Teme, lending itself naturally to impressive pictorial effects. Finberg mistakenly listed the subject as ‘Chepstow Castle’.2
Turner completed two watercolours using this drawing, in the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California,3 and (a smaller version) in the Barber Institute, Birmingham.4 Another view of Ludlow Castle is on folio 97 recto (D01317; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 63), and the Weir Bridge is shown on folio 98 recto (D01343; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 89).
1
John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, Shropshire, The Buildings of England, revised ed., New Haven and London 2006, p.362.
2
Finberg 1909, I, p.84.
3
Wilton 1979, p.329 no.264, reproduced.
4
Ibid., no.265, reproduced.
Verso:
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Pope | Mr | Munden’, ‘Ld Essex | Earl of Essex’, and ‘LM’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.
It would be interesting to know whether the ‘Mr Munden’ who apparently commissioned a watercolour of the view on the recto of this sheet was Joseph Munden, the celebrated comic actor (1758–1832). ‘Pope’ presumably refers to Alexander Pope the miniature painter (1763–1835), who also commissioned views of Llyn Cwellyn, folio 66 recto (D01351; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 97) and Conwy, folio 81 recto (D01304; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 50a).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Ludlow Castle from the North-West, with the River Teme in the Foreground 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-ludlow-castle-from-the-north-west-with-the-river-teme-in-the-r1173236, accessed 16 April 2024.