Joseph Mallord William Turner

Skipton Castle from the North

1816

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Yorkshire 4 Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 125 × 206 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D11454
Turner Bequest CXLVII 7 a

Catalogue entry

In this writer’s opinion, Turner visited Skipton at both the beginning and the end of his tour of 1816, on 17 July and 11 August. The orientation of this sketch, inverted in relation to the main sequence of subjects in the sketchbook, suggests that it was made at the end of the tour. It was almost certainly the last to have been entered in the book and probably the last to be made on the whole tour.
Skipton Castle began life as a Norman fort built in 1090, but assumed its present grandeur under the Clifford family after 1310. Similar views of Skipton occur in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11064–D11063; Turner Bequest CXLV 15–14a), which Turner used on the same tour.

David Hill
February 2009

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