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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Guernsey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vale Castle, Guernsey ?1832

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vale Castle, Guernsey’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 50 Verso:
Vale Castle, Guernsey ?1832
D23614
Turner Bequest CCLII 50a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘S[?ampson]’’ towards top right, ‘G[...]’ towards top right, ‘[?valle]’ towards bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, the two drawings on this page depict the medieval fortress of Vale Castle, Guernsey from different angles.1 Situated on a rocky outcrop north of St Sampson Harbour, the castle can be identified by the round towers that punctuate its curtain walls. The sketch on the top half of the page continues onto folio 51 recto opposite (D23615; Turner Bequest CCLII 51). Turner’s note identifies the distant land-mass on the left-hand edge of the page as Sark Island, which lies within sight of Guernsey east coast.

John Chu
April 2014

1
J.T. Cochrane, A Guide to the Island of Guernsey, St Peter Port 1826, p.99.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Vale Castle, Guernsey ?1832 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, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-vale-castle-guernsey-r1175106, accessed 23 April 2024.