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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Vale of Heathfield Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bodiam Castle from the River Rother ?1810

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bodiam Castle from the River Rother’ ?1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Verso:
Bodiam Castle from the River Rother ?1810
D10214
Turner Bequest CXXXVII 6a
Pencil on white wove paper, 181 x 228 mm
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted.
Bodiam Castle dates from 1385; it is extensively restored and is now the property of the National Trust. Continued very slightly on folio 8 D10215; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 7), the drawing served as the basis of Turner’s watercolour Bodiham Castle, Sussex made about 1816 for John Fuller (private collection)1 and subsequently engraved by William Bernard Cooke for the Fuller-financed Views in Sussex (see Introduction to the sketchbook). The view is from Bodiam Bridge across the Rother. On the left is the Red Lion inn and in the right distance, to the north-east, is the castle. In this drawing it appears only as a faint outline while in the watercolour it swims in hazy summer sunshine.
Turner made a circuit of the castle moat, drawing the ruins from different angles. Drawings in this sketchbook include a closer view on folio 8 verso (D10216; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 7a) and there are more in the Herstmonceux and Pevensey sketchbook (for example Tate D05684; Turner Bequest XCI 67), perhaps made on an earlier visit. The castle is about six miles from Fuller’s estate, Rosehill Park, and was of special interest to Fuller who bought it in ruinous condition in 1829, to save it from demolition, and undertook a partial restoration.

David Blayney Brown
March 2011

1
Wilton 1979, p.348 no.428.

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Bodiam Castle from the River Rother ?1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bodiam-castle-from-the-river-rother-r1131255, accessed 25 April 2024.