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 Goldielands Tower, Near Hawick 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Goldielands Tower, Near Hawick’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Goldielands Tower, Near Hawick 1831
D25563
Turner Bequest CCLXIV 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 94 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ?‘Gold’
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘21’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIV – 21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are three rough sketches on this page of Goldielands Tower near Hawick. With the sketchbook turned to the left is a view of the corner of the tower which was already in Turner’s day in a fairly ruinous state. The sketch is similar to another view of the tower on folio 11 verso (D25545). Above this is a sketch of the arched doorway to the tower. Turner may have had to climb at least some way up the east bank of the River Teviot on which the tower stands to get close enough to see the doorway. The final sketch at the bottom of the page, showing the tower from below to the west, was drawn with the sketchbook inverted and is quite similar to the sketch of the tower on folio 18 (D2557). To the right of the sketch Turner inscribed ‘Gold’ to remind him of the identity of these rough sketches.
Turner also made sketches of the tower in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border sketchbook (Tate D25914; Turner Bequest CCLXVI 85a).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Goldielands Tower, Near Hawick 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-goldielands-tower-near-hawick-r1133923, accessed 20 September 2024.