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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Academical Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Caernarvon Castle with Shipping: Moonlight c.1798-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Caernarvon Castle with Shipping: Moonlight’ c.1798-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Verso:
Caernarvon Castle with Shipping: Moonlight c.1798–9
D01866
Turner Bequest XLIII 44a
Watercolour and gouache on blue laid paper prepared with a red-brown ground, 140 x 216 mm
Stamped in black ‘XLIII – 44a’ bottom right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned horizontally, like the drawing on folio 43 verso (D01862; Turner Bequest XLIII 42a) this shows Turner’s delight in complex superimpositions of boats and their rigging on one another, or on background buildings. He adds in this instance a wreath of smoke, presumably from a fire on the shore at the right, which obscures the moon in place of the cloud that performs the same function in the drawing on folio 44 verso (D01864; Turner Bequest XLIII 43a).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Caernarvon Castle with Shipping: Moonlight c.1798–9 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-caernarvon-castle-with-shipping-moonlight-r1174066, accessed 23 April 2024.