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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Drawings Connected with the Kent and ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Caernarvon Castle from the East 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Caernarvon Castle from the East’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Caernarvon Castle from the East 1798
D01901
Turner Bequest XLIV Y
Pencil and watercolour on white laid paper, 220 x 282 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLIV – Y’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study is perhaps related to the finished watercolour exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1799 (private collection).1 The likely prime source for that work is in the 1798 Hereford Court sketchbook (Tate D01348; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 94). Turner may have had in mind one of the views of Caernarvon by Richard Wilson (1713–1782).2 See also the pencil studies of Caernarvon on card (Tate D01884, D01885; Turner Bequest XLIV H, I).
There are related studies on the verso (D40058).
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.328 no.254, pl.47 (colour).
2
See W.G. Constable, Richard Wilson, London and Cambridge, Mass. 1953, p. 173
Technical notes:
There are red and blue colour trials at the top right; regular creases indicate that the sheet was once folded several times.

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Caernarvon Castle from the East 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-caernarvon-castle-from-the-east-r1174961, accessed 26 April 2024.