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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Lowther Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Architectural Details of Lowther Castle 1809

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Architectural Details of Lowther Castle’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Architectural Details of Lowther Castle 1809
D07892
Turner Bequest CXIII 25
Pencil on white wove paper, 83 x 114 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Windows door’ top centre, ‘7 | 5’ centre and ?‘Cornice’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘25’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXIII 25’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With similar details on folio 26 (D07893) these were drawn at Lowther Castle during Turner’s visit in 1809, for which see Introduction to the sketchbook. The castle was still under construction, in Gothic style to the designs of Robert Smirke. Turner’s two pictures, Lowther Castle, Westmorland, the Seat of the Earl of Lonsdale: North-West View from Ullswater Lane: Evening and Lowther Castle, Westmorland, the Seat of the Earl of Lonsdale (the North Front), with the River Lowther: Mid-day exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1810 (private collection),1 showed the building at some distance, in its landscape setting, so hardly required this level of detail. However, Turner’s personal interest in architecture and in contemporary Gothic Revival houses spurred him to make these close-up studies.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London revised ed.1984, pp.78–9 nos.111,112 (pls.116, 117).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
July 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Architectural Details of Lowther Castle 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-architectural-details-of-lowther-castle-r1135848, accessed 25 April 2024.