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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Millom Castle and Holy Trinity Church from the East 1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Millom Castle and Holy Trinity Church from the East 1809
D08978
Turner Bequest CXXVII 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 126 x 202 mm
Part watermark ‘lmon | 05’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CXXVII 11’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The staircase up to the arch flanked by massive, ruined walls on the east side of Millom Castle, Cumbria, survives today in much the same state. The arch leads to a small courtyard, beyond which is the pele tower, now a farmhouse. The church, south of the castle, is seen through trees to the left.
There are several other studies of Millom in this sketchbook (D08975, D08976, D08998, D09001; CXXVII 9, 9a, 23a, 25a), complementing the distant views in the 1809 Petworth sketchbook (Tate D07534, D07535; Turner Bequest CIX 22, 23), which also includes drawings of the Cumbrian castles at Cockermouth and Egremont; the studies here were presumably made on the same tour. For the situation and history of the castle and adjacent church, see under D08975.
Technical notes:
This page is a face of one of the loose bifolio sheets which form the majority of the so-called Sandycombe and Yorkshire sketchbook, along with a few single leaves. The sheets were not bound, but folded inside each other in a sequence which is not entirely recoverable (see the sketchbook’s Introduction for a suggested order). When unfolded, this page is continuous with the verso of D08992 (CXXVII 20); the measurements given above are for the present work alone.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
January 2012

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Millom Castle and Holy Trinity Church from the East 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2012, 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-millom-castle-and-holy-trinity-church-from-the-east-r1134689, accessed 19 April 2024.