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 34 Recto:
Dunbar Castle 1818
D13640
Turner Bequest CLXVII 32
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ink ‘32’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 32’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Continued from folio 33 verso (D13639; CLXVII 31c) this sketch shows the ruins of Dunbar Castle from the east, and was one of three studies used as the basis of Turner’s watercolour design for the Provincial Antiquities, Dunbar, circa 1823 (private collection).1 The present page shows the castle from the ruined gateway (left) to the sea, with the ruins of what was probably the keep almost tumbling in among the rocks.
There is a pink smudge next to Finberg’s inscription at the top right; the remains of Ruskin’s red ink numbering.

Thomas Ardill
March 2008

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426 no.1066.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Dunbar Castle 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-r1132188, accessed 19 April 2024.