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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dudley: The Castle Keep ?from Wren's Nest Hill 1830

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dudley: The Castle Keep ?from Wren's Nest Hill’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Recto:
Dudley: The Castle Keep ?from Wren’s Nest Hill 1830
D22421
Turner Bequest CCXL 52
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 68 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘52’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXL – 52’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has confirmed this drawing, made with the page turned vertically, as a Dudley subject.1 The sketches between folios 50 recto and 54 recto (D22417–D22425) all seem to be of or looking from Wren’s Nest Hill, north of Dudley, in this case looking south-east towards the castle with a ravine or quarry below, as on subsequent pages. A painting of Dudley from the Wren’s Nest by Frederick Henry Henshaw (1807–1891; Dudley Museums Service) shows a similar aspect. Compare the sequence in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook (Tate D22085–D22090; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 57–59a). For other views of Dudley, see under folio 39 recto (D22395).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dudley: The Castle Keep ?from Wren’s Nest Hill 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-dudley-the-castle-keep-from-wrens-nest-hill-r1148571, accessed 23 April 2024.