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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Herstmonceux and Pevensey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bodiam Castle from the River Rother c.1806-10

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bodiam Castle from the River Rother’ c.1806-10
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 67 Recto:
Bodiam Castle from the River Rother circa 1806–10
D05684
Turner Bequest XCI 67
Pencil and white chalk on cream wove paper, prepared with a buff wash, 201 x 128 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘67’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XCI 67’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram, bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Bodiam Castle (in the care of the National Trust) was begun in 1385 and passed through various owners. By the eighteenth century, when it was an ivy-covered ruin, it was in the possession of the Webster family of Battle Abbey, who sold it to Turner’s patron John Fuller in 1829. Fuller is credited with saving it from demolition, and began a partial restoration. Around 1816, Turner made for Fuller a watercolour of Bodiam (private collection)1 working from a drawing in his Vale of Heathfield sketchbook (Tate D10214–D10215; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 6a–7). This indicates that the castle, only a few miles from Fuller’s estate at Rosehill (now Brightling) Park, was of interest to Fuller well before he bought it but on the evidence of this sketchbook, Turner’s own interest predated his patron’s. He surveyed the castle from all sides, walking round the moat and working at least as far as folio 77 (D05694). This view is from the south-east, approaching the castle from the River Rother near Bodiam bridge.
The leaf is stained.
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.348 no.428.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
March 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Bodiam Castle from the River Rother c.1806–10 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2011, 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-bodiam-castle-from-the-river-rother-r1130995, accessed 24 April 2024.