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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Normandy ?1829 > Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lillebonne Castle ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lillebonne Castle’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Recto:
Lillebonne Castle ?1829
D23768
Turner Bequest CCLIII 36
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘36’ top right ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 36’ top right ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a ruined castle on high rocky ground overlooking a church tower at bottom left. Finberg indicated this sketch as ‘Ruined castle: Lillebonne’,1 and the location of Lillebonne has been confirmed.2 In this sketch, Turner concentrates on the details of the castle tower at top left, and on the left side of the donjon tower, indicating the latter’s rounded structure. (For further information on the castle, see under folio 29 recto; D23754.)
The church tower, indicated by a few minimal pencil strokes, is identifiable from its shape and location as that of the Church of Notre-Dame, Lillebonne. (For further information on the church, see under folio 28 recto, D23752.)

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.769.
2
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999), p.3.

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Lillebonne Castle ?1829 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lillebonne-castle-r1195674, accessed 03 October 2025.