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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > County Durham and Northumberland 1817 > Raby Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Raby Castle and Park from the North 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Raby Castle and Park from the North’ 1817
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Raby Castle and Park from the North 1817
D12287
Turner Bequest CLVI 16
Pencil on white wove paper, 232 x 328 mm
Inscribed in pencil ‘[?16]’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLVI 16’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Raby Castle is not recorded in detail, but the effect of a silhouette against the light from the south is evident, just as in the more meticulous studies noted below and the resulting painting Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818 (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore).1 The tower of St Mary’s Church, Staindrop, to the south, is visible towards the left and the composition is framed by trees in the foreground to left and right.
The view is a single-page version of the two panoramic studies on folios 19 recto, 18 recto and 17 verso (D12278, D12296, D12297; CLVI 11a, 21a–22), and folios 21 recto and 20 verso (D12300, D12301; CLVI 23a–24). There is a further, slighter variation on folio 21 verso opposite (D12299; CLVI 23), which was originally continuous with the page now bound as folio 17 recto (D12298; CLVI 22a). As now bound and foliated, sketches of the castle and its surroundings fill most of the second half of the sketchbook, from folio 17 recto to folio 32 recto (D12309; CLVI 28).

Matthew Imms
February 2010

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.101–2 no.136, pl.142 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Raby Castle and Park from the North 1817 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2010, 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-raby-castle-and-park-from-the-north-r1139492, accessed 26 April 2024.