Joseph Mallord William Turner

?Windsor Castle from across the River Thames

c.1805

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Composition Studies Sketchbook
Medium
Dimensions: Support: 118 × 184 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D03806
Turner Bequest LXV 5

Catalogue entry

The tall and extensive range of riverside buildings in the distance here and in the variation on folio 6 recto (D03807) suggest Windsor Castle, on the south bank of the Thames some twelve miles due west of the riverside sites around Isleworth of depicted on folios 1 recto–4 recto (D03802–D03805).

The site was long familiar to the artist, and he had drawn there as early as 1792 (Tate D00118–D00120; Turner Bequest VIII D, E, F). There are numerous detailed drawings in other books used in 1805 or a little later; see for example the watercolour view across the river and through trees in the Studies for Pictures: Isleworth sketchbook (Tate D05532; Turner Bequest XC 29a), related to the contemporary painting Windsor Castle from the Thames (Tate T03870; displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex).1

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.113 no.149, pl.156 (colour)

Verso:

Blank. There is slight offsetting from the ink drawing on folio 6 recto opposite (D03807).

Matthew Imms
April 2016

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