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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Rokeby and Appleby Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bowes Castle 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bowes Castle’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Verso:
Bowes Castle 1831
D25531
Turner Bequest CCLXIV 4a
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 94 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Emma House has identified the three sketches on this page as representing Bowes Castle, a subject that Turner illustrated for volume 9 of Scott’s Poetical Works: Bowes Tower circa 1832 (watercolour, Bowes Museum).1 The sketch at the bottom of the page shows Bowes Tower from the south. This is the viewpoint that Turner chose for his illustration. Although his final design was based on a composition in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish border sketchbook (Tate D25821; Turner Bequest CCLXV1 31), the castle and St Giles’s Church to its right were taken from this page.
At the top left, a second sketch, also taken from the south, shows the castle alone and in more detail. This is Turner’s most detailed study of the castle. The final study at the right of the page, made with the sketchbook turned to the left, shows the castle’s western elevation.
There are further views of the castle on folio 5 of this sketchbook (D25532), and in the Minstrelsy sketchbook (D25820–D25822; Turner Bequest CCLXVI 30a–31a).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.429 no.1087; Emma House, ‘Bowes Tower’, Turner Society News, no.108, March 2008, p.8.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Bowes Castle 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, 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-bowes-castle-r1133890, accessed 26 April 2024.