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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Keep of Dover Castle and the Constable's Gate from the North-West 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Keep of Dover Castle and the Constable's Gate from the North-West’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 259 Recto:
The Keep of Dover Castle and the Constable’s Gate from the North-West 1825
D19354
Turner Bequest CCXIV 259
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘59’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 259’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the keep of Dover Castle, as identified by Finberg,1 is seen high to the north-west on the left. Constable’s Road leads up to the Constable’s Gate at the centre, off what is now Castle Hill Road, descending steeply to the right, where it is now lined with trees. Shading here and there suggests afternoon light from the right; the sun itself is shown in the prospect in that direction on folio 258 verso opposite (D19353).
Compare the dramatic view emphasising the looming gatehouse in William Daniell’s 1823 aquatint Dover Castle, from A Voyage Round Great Britain (Tate impression: T02951). A watercolour study from about this angle (Tate D25308; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 186), encompassing the wider view on the opposite page, possibly relates to the Picturesque View of England and Wales project; other sketches from this vicinity are discussed in its catalogue entry.
This is among nearly forty consecutive pages towards the end of this sketchbook devoted to aspects of Dover and its castle (folios 253 verso–272 verso; D19343–D19381). For Turner’s many other views there in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 2 recto (D18843).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.660.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Keep of Dover Castle and the Constable’s Gate from the North-West 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, 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-keep-of-dover-castle-and-the-constables-gate-from-the-r1202706, accessed 01 April 2026.