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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Corfe to Dartmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Corfe Castle from the South 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Corfe Castle from the South’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Verso:
Corfe Castle from the South 1811
D08824
Turner Bequest CXXIV 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 170 x 209 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CXXIV – 16’ bottom right on the recto (see discussion below)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The castle is seen from the highest of the tumuli on Corfe Common about a mile to the south, west of the turn to Kingston from the main Corfe to Swanage road. The castle perches on its mound in the gap in the ridge of the Purbeck Hills, between West and East Hills, with the village below and the heathland towards Poole Harbour beyond. There is a much closer view from a similar angle on folio 8 recto (D08815).
From the foliation of the sketchbook it seems that Turner drew this view as the first of a second sequence of views of Corfe Castle, having meanwhile visited Swanage on folios 12 recto–15 verso (D08818–D08822). For his earlier and subsequent drawings of the castle and village, see the entry for folio 17 recto (D08826).
This page was recorded by Finberg as if it were a recto (without the ‘a’ suffix by which he usually indicates a verso), but it is bound as the verso of the sheet and stamped on the blank ‘recto’. When Tate accession numbers were allocated to the sketchbook the verso (i.e. the present drawing) was originally designated as D08825, but the number was cancelled as redundant.
Technical notes:
A small tear has been repaired at the top centre.

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Corfe Castle from the South 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-corfe-castle-from-the-south-r1137306, accessed 19 April 2024.