Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Castle on a Headland: Sunset

c.1799–1802

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Studies for Pictures Sketchbook
Medium
Ink and graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 135 × 210 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D04117
Turner Bequest LXIX 102

Catalogue entry

Made with the page turned horizontally, this study is developed from the monochrome sketch on folio 2 recto (D03995). It probably shows Harlech Castle, and should be read in conjunction with the drawings on the immediately following leaves, which are studies in coloured chalks for another North Wales subject, the composition that became Dolbadern Castle, North Wales, shown at the Royal Academy in 1800 (Royal Academy of Arts, London).1 In the event Turner seems to have made relatively little use of his Harlech studies.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.9–10 no.12, pl.7 (colour).
Technical notes:
An offset of this drawing is on the verso of folio 121 (D04139; Turner Bequest LXIX 122), indicating that the pages were once bound consecutively.
Verso:
Blank; slight offset from folio 102 recto opposite (D04118; Turner Bequest LXIX 103). There are also splashes of pinkish-brown gouache; compare folio 2 recto (D03995). Inscribed in pencil ‘772’.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

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