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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Tower, ?Hailes Castle, East Linton 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Tower, ?Hailes Castle, East Linton’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
A Tower, ?Hailes Castle, East Linton 1831
D25699
Turner Bequest CCLXV 32
Pencil on white wove paper, 96 x 59 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘32’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXV 32’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These two sketches of a ruined castle, drawn with the sketchbook turned to the right, have not been identified with any certainty, though Hailes Castle in East Linton near Haddington is a possibility. Turner made a number of sketches of the castle in the Abbotsford sketchbook, of which several bear a resemblance to the present sketch (e.g. Tate D25971; Turner Bequest CCLXVII 24a). If this is the case then the hills sketched opposite on folio 31 verso (D25698) may have been made from nearby and therefore include Traprain Law (see Tate D26007; Turner Bequest CCLXVII 47a). Another possible identification of the current sketches is part of the ruins of Berwick Castle, which is depicted nearby in the sketchbook (folio 28 verso; D25692).

Thomas Ardill
May 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘A Tower, ?Hailes Castle, East Linton 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2010, 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-a-tower-hailes-castle-east-linton-r1134063, accessed 19 September 2024.