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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Orford c.1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 86 Verso:
Orford c.1824
D18304
Turner Bequest CCIX 86a
Pencil on white wove paper, 115 x 118 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rendered with the sketchbook turned upside down, here Turner has produced a view of Orford, Suffolk, from the banks of a bend of the River Ore. At centre is Orford Castle keep, a stronghold built between 1165 and 1173 for Henry II to consolidate royal power in the region.1 St Bartholomew’s Church can be seen at far right.
This sketch and others (see Tate D18305–D18309; Turner Bequest CCIX 87–89) are associated with the vignette watercolour of Orford Haven produced in around 1827 for the East Coast series (see general introduction) and the highly finished watercolour Orford, Suffolk of the same date intended for the England and Wales print publication project.2

Alice Rylance-Watson
January 2015

1
‘History: The Castle’, Orford Museum, accessed 29 January 2015, http://www.orfordmuseum.org.uk/thecastle.html
2
Wilton 1979, p.393 no.796 and Krause 1997, p.162 no.49.

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Orford c.1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-orford-r1181186, accessed 19 September 2024.