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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Tour of Yorkshire 1816 > Yorkshire 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Interior of Dow Cave 1816

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Interior of Dow Cave’ 1816
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 156 Recto:
The Interior of Dow Cave 1816
D11309
Turner Bequest CXLV 155
Pencil on white wove paper, 96 x 154 mm
Watermark ‘mith | 12’
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘155’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest number ‘CXLV 159’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this is the sixth in a series of sketches extending to folio 155 recto (D11307; Turner Bequest CXLV 154), recording a descent into Dow Cave near Kettlewell in upper Wharfedale, no doubt with the assistance of a guide. Most of these are entertainingly incoherent as Turner presumably struggled to see what he was drawing in the darkness. It is difficult to be certain even of the orientation of this sketch, although it appears to show the roof of the cave towards the page gutter.
The present author has dated these sketches to Thursday 25 July 1816.1 For general notes on Dow Cave, see under folio 159 recto (D11315; Turner Bequest CXLV 158).

David Hill
April 2009

1
See Hill 1984, pp.42–6.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘The Interior of Dow Cave 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-interior-of-dow-cave-r1201896, accessed 12 September 2025.