J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Kenilworth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, with St Helen's Church Beyond 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, with St Helen's Church Beyond’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, with St Helen’s Church Beyond 1830
D22014
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 22
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘22’ bottom left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 22’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The upper view shows Ashby Castle to the north-west from the old formal gardens, with the kitchen block on the left, the Hastings Tower in the foreground at the centre with the castle chapel beyond to its right. In the distance is the tower of St Helen’s Church. The low features at the far left and right do not survive. Above right and below are various fragmentary architectural details.
Following Finberg’s lead,1 Andrew Wilton has described this drawing as the basis for the watercolour Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, c.1830 (currently untraced),2 engraved in 1832 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04593, T05090),3 but although the main view shows the same side of the castle, the juxtaposition of the various elements differs and the landscape setting is not indicated; the closest sketch to the finished composition is that on folio 45 verso (D22060).
For other views of Ashby, see under folio 21 verso opposite (D22012; CCXXXVIII 21).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.730.
2
Wilton 1979, p.398 no.840.
3
Ibid., under no.840.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, with St Helen’s Church Beyond 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-ashby-de-la-zouch-castle-with-st-helens-church-beyond-r1148655, accessed 19 September 2024.