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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dunbar Castle 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dunbar Castle’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
Dunbar Castle 1818
D13631
Turner Bequest CLXVII 28
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ‘28’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 28’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch shows the ruined gateway of Dunbar Castle, drawn here in careful outline with the detail of an arched window. This is one of a series of close-up sketches of the castle which sits on a promontory off the East Lothian coast (see folio 25; D13626; CLXVII 24 for details). The drawing record the ruins from different angles, and helped Turner to create his watercolour of Dunbar, circa 1823 (private collection),1 which was engraved for the Provincial Antiquities publication. The following page contains a similar view taken from slightly further away (folio 30; D13632; CLXVII 29).
There is a pale pink smudge beneath Finberg’s blue number ‘28’, presumably the remains of Ruskin’s original red ink numbering.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426 no.1066.
Verso:
Blank

Thomas Ardill
February 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Dunbar Castle 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2008, 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-dunbar-castle-r1132179, accessed 26 April 2024.