Joseph Mallord William Turner

Figures and Boats with a Castle Beyond

1798

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Dynevor Castle Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 135 x 95 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D01554
Turner Bequest XL 54 a

Catalogue entry

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this very rough sketch, which is continued on folio 57 recto opposite (D01555; Turner Bequest XL 55), does not appear to be a record of any observed scene; it seems to be an idea for a picture.
The composition includes elements that may be associated with Turner’s large watercolours of Pembroke Castle (National Museum Wales, Cardiff; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto),1 and with the smaller watercolour of the same castle still in the Turner Bequest (Tate D01877, Turner Bequest XLIV A), or alternatively with the view of Caernarvon Castle at sunset, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1799 (private collection).2

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, respectively p.331 no.280, pl.64 (colour), no.281, reproduced.
2
Ibid., p.328 no.254, pl.47 (colour).

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