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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Composition Studies Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Windsor Castle from across the River Thames c.1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Windsor Castle from across the River Thames’ c.1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
?Windsor Castle from across the River Thames c.1805
D03806
Turner Bequest LXV 5
Ink on cream laid writing paper, 118 x 184 mm
Part watermark ‘J Lar’
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘6’ top left, ‘5’ top centre, ‘4’, ‘3’ and ‘2’ towards top right, ‘[?6]’ above right of centre, ‘3’, ‘4’ and ‘2’ right of centre, ‘5’ towards bottom left, and ‘[?4]’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXV – 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The tall and extensive range of riverside buildings in the distance here and in the variation on folio 6 recto (D03807) suggest Windsor Castle, on the south bank of the Thames some twelve miles due west of the riverside sites around Isleworth of depicted on folios 1 recto–4 recto (D03802–D03805).
The site was long familiar to the artist, and he had drawn there as early as 1792 (Tate D00118–D00120; Turner Bequest VIII D, E, F). There are numerous detailed drawings in other books used in 1805 or a little later; see for example the watercolour view across the river and through trees in the Studies for Pictures: Isleworth sketchbook (Tate D05532; Turner Bequest XC 29a), related to the contemporary painting Windsor Castle from the Thames (Tate T03870; displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex).1
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.113 no.149, pl.156 (colour)
Verso:
Blank. There is slight offsetting from the ink drawing on folio 6 recto opposite (D03807).

Matthew Imms
April 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Windsor Castle from across the River Thames c.1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-windsor-castle-from-across-the-river-thames-r1183643, accessed 19 April 2024.