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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Severn Valley, Chester and Peak District ... > Worcester and Shrewsbury Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Views in Peak Cavern, Castleton ?1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Views in Peak Cavern, Castleton’ ?1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
?Views in Peak Cavern, Castleton ?1831
D22153
Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 191 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?People prepare to go into | the Cave]’ above right of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIX – 2’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These rather rough sketches were made with the page turned vertically. The irregular outlines and heavily hatched shadows at the top seem to indicate a cave, supported by the inscription across a narrow band demarcated by horizontal pencil lines below, perhaps with rock formations, which appears to be inscribed to the effect that ‘People prepare to go into the Cave’.
Below seems to be another cave interior, with upright forms with cross-pieces, probably the telegraph pole-like frames associated with rope-making, formerly carried out in the Peak Cavern to service the local lead mines and still demonstrated today;1 see also the slight sketches on folios 40 recto and 41 verso (D22224, D22227) and possibly on folio 36 recto (D22216), and an 1805 engraving after Edward Dayes (1763–1804) of The Peak Cavern, Derbyshire: View from the Interior of the Great Arch (Tate impression: T06400), with rope being wound. The lower third of the page appears to show another aspect of the cave.
For other views of Peveril Castle, Castleton and Peak Cavern, see under folio 1 verso opposite (D22152).

Matthew Imms
April 2014

1
See ‘Rope-Making’, Peak Cavern, accessed 8 October 2013, http://peakcavern.co.uk/peak-cavern/activities/rope-making/.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Views in Peak Cavern, Castleton ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-views-in-peak-cavern-castleton-r1148798, accessed 18 April 2024.