Joseph Mallord William Turner

Tamworth Castle, St Editha’s Church and Ladybridge

1830

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Kenilworth Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 120 × 203 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D22073
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 52

Catalogue entry

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are two views of Tamworth’s castle, church and bridge; the upper is from the south, with Ladybridge to the left and the church to the right of the castle, whereas the lower is from further west, with the bridge in the foreground and the pinnacles of the church tower to the left of the castle.
As Eric Shanes has noted,1 the upper sketch informed Turner’s England and Wales watercolour of Tamworth, discussed under folio 52 verso opposite (D22072; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 51c), the primary source, under which other views are noted.
1
Shanes 1979, p.156; and Shanes 1990, p.217, 285 note 158.
Technical notes:
There a small splash or dab of dusky pink watercolour at the bottom left, perhaps a test stroke for the colour of the silhouetted castle in the England and Wales design.

Matthew Imms
August 2013

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