Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin

Provenance:
Probably commissioned by Dr Thomas Monro
Monro’s posthumous sale, Christie’s, London, 26–28 June and 1–2 July 1833 (day and lot number not known)
Bought by or on behalf of Turner

The pencil work is probably by Girtin. The subject was perhaps copied from a drawing by Edward Dayes (1763–1804). This sheet was not published by Finberg in his 1909 Inventory, although he later annotated his own copy,1 allocating it the Turner Bequest number given here.

Turner had not been to North Wales when he made this drawing, but he was to execute a number of views of Conwy on his first visit there in 1798; see the Hereford Court sketchbook (Tate D01303–D01308, D01336; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 50, 50a, 51, 52, 53, 54, 82). These gave rise to the large oil painting Conway Castle of about 1803 (private collection)2 and several watercolours.

The present work is listed in the 1906 Manchester and 1912 Newcastle catalogues of the Fourth Loan Collection, but not in William White’s 1896 catalogue of the initial 1891–5 showing at the Ruskin Art Museum in Sheffield.3 It was presumably introduced as an extra or replacement work at an unknown date after 1895, hence the other venues prior to 1906 are listed here only tentatively.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed (not by Turner or Girtin) in pencil ‘Landscape of Ruined Castle 1796’, by C.F. Bell ‘This is no M in Finberg CFB’, and in another hand ‘Conway Castle’.