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 > Cyfarthfa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Wenvoe Castle, Glamorgan, from the South-West 1798

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Wenvoe Castle, Glamorgan, from the South-West’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Wenvoe Castle, Glamorgan, from the South-West 1798
D01654
Turner Bequest XLI 23
Pencil on white wove paper, 296 x 462 mm
Watermark ‘1794 | J Whatman’
Inscribed in pencil ‘23’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLI – 23’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although Finberg suggests ‘Powis Castle, near Welshpool’,1 this drawing certainly depicts Wenvoe Castle, south of Cardiff. The house was designed by Robert Adam for Peter Birt and built, perhaps by Henry Holland, about 1780. Turner has made a slight study of architectural detail, perhaps relating to a building in the park, in the blank space at the upper right. There is no evidence that he had received a commission to paint a ‘portrait’ of the house.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.98.
Technical notes:
The upper left corner of the sheet has been torn and made up,
Verso:
Blank; not stamped.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Wenvoe Castle, Glamorgan, from the South-West 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-wenvoe-castle-glamorgan-from-the-south-west-r1173270, accessed 25 April 2024.