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: The North Front 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Raby Castle: The North Front’ 1817
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Verso:
Raby Castle: The North Front 1817
D12283
Turner Bequest CLVI 14
Pencil on white wove paper, 232 x 328 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | 1816’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Raby’ bottom right and ‘[?water]’ toward sbottom centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘14’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLVI 14’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view shows the north side of the castle seen from a little to the east, with Mount Raskelf on the left, the Kitchen Tower in the middle to the left of the tree trunk, and Clifford’s Tower looming on the right, with the twin turrets of the detached gatehouse in front of it. Deer are indicated towards the left with a series of loops and dashes.
There appear to be tentative continuations of the foliage on the right on folios 23 verso (D40726) and 22 verso (D12288; CLVI 16a). However, Turner may have changed his mind and decided to make a more significant continuation on folio 24 verso (D12281; CLVI 13) where the right-hand third includes trees in the background which seem to continue outward from the gatehouse here, and a larger tree in the middle distance to frame the view.
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 (D12298; CLVI 22a) to folio 32 recto (D12309; CLVI 28).

Matthew Imms
February 2010

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Raby Castle: The North Front 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-the-north-front-r1139499, accessed 23 April 2024.