Joseph Mallord William Turner

East Cowes Castle from the North-West, with the Medina Valley Below

1827

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
The House and Grounds at East Cowes Castle
Medium
Chalk and pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
Support: 137 × 195 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D20821
Turner Bequest CCXXVII a 18

Catalogue entry

Although Finberg described this view of East Cowes Castle as including the waters of the Solent1 (off the Isle of Wight to the north), it shows the north-west front of the house with the small detached tower over the ‘garden room’ beyond to the right, and the wooded grounds falling away to the valley of the River Medina, looking inland towards the south. There seem to be figures suggested in the foreground, as shown more clearly in a similar view (Tate D20843; Turner Bequest CCXXVII a 40).
This is among dozens of blue paper studies made in and around East Cowes Castle, presumably in the course of a single visit. For more on the various aspects of the house (demolished in about 1950), and its lost grounds as depicted by Turner, see the Introduction to this subsection.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.701.
Technical notes:
Although not immediately apparent, losses were sustained in the 1928 Tate Gallery flood, when ink was offset to a sheet laid over this one during the recovery process (Tate D40521).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
November 2015

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