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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Carlisle 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Carlisle’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 42 Verso:
Carlisle 1831
D25844
Turner Bequest CCLXVI 42a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of Carlisle from the north-east, made with the sketchbook inverted and continuing slightly onto folio 43 (D25845), is a compositional preparation for the much more detailed drawing across folios 43 verso–44 (D25846–D25847). This drawing formed the basis of Turner’s frontispiece illustration for volume 1 of Scott’s Poetical Works: Carlisle circa 1832 (watercolour, Yale Center for British Art).1
The composition, with Eden Bridge directly beneath the castle and the cathedral to the left, emulates the design that Turner made around 1797 for the Copper Plate Magazine, Carlisle, which was engraved by Walker, published in 1797 (Tate T05902) and based on designs by other artists. In his final design for Scott, Turner shifted the position of the bridge to the right.
For further sketches of Carlisle in this book see folio 39 verso (D25838).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.427 no.1070.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Carlisle 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, 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-carlisle-r1134211, accessed 26 April 2024.