Allington Castle, Kent: The Gateway

This watercolour is based on a drawing in the 1798 South Wales sketchbook (Tate D00655; Turner Bequest XXVI 93), one of four studies of Allington there; see also Tate D00643, D00654, D00657; Turner Bequest XXVI 83v, 92, 95). The later pages of that book were used on a tour in Kent in 1798; see under Tate D00878 (Turner Bequest XXXIII G). Allington was converted into a fortified manor house in the fifteenth century, having been a substantial castle, begun in 1281 on the site of an older fortification. It was much reduced by a fire in about 1600, and is now the property of an order of Carmelite nuns.

Technical notes:

The sheet is faded from exposure.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in a later hand, in pencil ‘105’, and in another hand ‘8’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.