Joseph Mallord William Turner

Caernarvon Castle, with the Eagle Tower, from the East

1798

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Hereford Court Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 229 × 332 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D01348
Turner Bequest XXXVIII 94

Catalogue entry

Another view of Caernarvon Castle in this book is on folio 67 recto (D01347; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 93). Turner developed the subject in composition studies that he made in the Academical sketchbook (D01856, D01860–D01864, D01866; Turner Bequest XLIII 39a, 41a, 42, 42a, 43, 43a, 44a). Of these, D01856 and D01862 were particularly important in the genesis of a large watercolour of Caernarvon at sunset that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1799 (private collection);1 much later he returned to this drawing for the subject of one of his watercolour designs, Caernarvon Castle, Wales, of about 1833, for the series of Picturesque Views in England and Wales (British Museum, London),2 engraved in 1835 (Tate impressions: T04603, T06112).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.328 no.254, pl.47 (colour).
2
Ibid., p.400 no.857, pl.196.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil (not by Turner) ‘164’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Left Right