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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North Wales 1799-1801 > Dolbadarn Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Conwy Castle 1799

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Conwy Castle’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 107 Verso:
Conwy Castle 1799
D02154
Turner Bequest XLVI 107a
Pencil on white wove paper prepared with a pink ground, 79 x 130 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Turner made various outline sketches of the great mass of Conwy Castle; see folios 99 verso and 104 verso (D02141, D02148), and here he comes close to the composition of a large painting of the subject (private collection),1 executed shortly after his return from this tour, and a series of watercolour views of the castle,2 notably the large view now at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.3

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.107–8 no.141, pl.146 (colour).
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, pp.329–30 nos.268–271 (some reproduced).
3
Ibid., pp.329–30 no.270 (then Viscount Gage collection).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Conwy Castle 1799 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 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-conwy-castle-r1180013, accessed 26 April 2024.