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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > The House and Grounds at East Cowes ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner East Cowes Castle from the West, beyond Trees and a Pond at Moonrise 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘East Cowes Castle from the West, beyond Trees and a Pond at Moonrise’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
East Cowes Castle from the West, beyond Trees and a Pond at Moonrise 1827
D20814
Turner Bequest CCXXVII a 11
Gouache and ink on blue wove paper, 147 x 190 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘11’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXVII(a) 11’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is through trees west of East Cowes Castle, with what seems to be the northernmost of the two ponds marked on that side on early Ordnance Survey maps, apparently reflecting the light of a full moon rising beyond the rough skyline. The other pond may be shown in Tate D20825 (Turner Bequest CCXVII a 22).
This is among dozens of blue paper studies made in and around East Cowes Castle, presumably in the course of a single visit, including several showing the moon. For more on the various aspects of the house (demolished in about 1950), and its lost grounds as depicted by Turner, see the Introduction to this subsection.
While this sheet was definitely exhibited in Shock of Recognition in The Hague and London from 1970 to 1971, the identity of a second (Hague no.50a, London no.48a, as ‘Bay with East Cowes Castle in the background’) is uncertain; candidates include D20804 and D20819–D20821 (CCXXVII a 1, 16, 17, 18).
Technical notes:
Although not immediately apparent, losses were sustained in the 1928 Tate Gallery flood, when ink was offset to a sheet laid over this one during the recovery process (Tate D40523).
Verso:
Blank; the heavily applied ink on the recto has bled through a little, and there is very slight ink offsetting, presumably from another drawing in this East Cowes sequence.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘East Cowes Castle from the West, beyond Trees and a Pond at Moonrise 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-east-cowes-castle-from-the-west-beyond-trees-and-a-pond-at-r1182677, accessed 25 April 2024.