Joseph Mallord William Turner

Architectural Details of Lowther Castle

1809

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Lowther Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 83 x 114 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D07892
Turner Bequest CXIII 25

Catalogue entry

With similar details on folio 26 (D07893) these were drawn at Lowther Castle during Turner’s visit in 1809, for which see Introduction to the sketchbook. The castle was still under construction, in Gothic style to the designs of Robert Smirke. Turner’s two pictures, Lowther Castle, Westmorland, the Seat of the Earl of Lonsdale: North-West View from Ullswater Lane: Evening and Lowther Castle, Westmorland, the Seat of the Earl of Lonsdale (the North Front), with the River Lowther: Mid-day exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1810 (private collection),1 showed the building at some distance, in its landscape setting, so hardly required this level of detail. However, Turner’s personal interest in architecture and in contemporary Gothic Revival houses spurred him to make these close-up studies.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London revised ed.1984, pp.78–9 nos.111,112 (pls.116, 117).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
July 2009

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