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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Stirling and Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bothwell Castle, the Donjon from the West 1834

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bothwell Castle, the Donjon from the West’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Recto:
Bothwell Castle, the Donjon from the West 1834
D26311
Turner Bequest CCLXIX 27
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘27’ top left running vertically and ‘340’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIX 27’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned to the left is a slight, but accurate outline sketch of the donjon (or keep) of Bothwell Castle. The half-collapsed drum-shaped structure stands at the west end of the castle. Having been unable to fit this part of the building into his sketches on folios 26 and 26 verso (D26309, D26310) Turner drew it here instead. The donjon appears again in a similar small study at the bottom left of folio 28 (D26303) and can be seen in many of Turner’s other sketches of the castle; see folio 26 for a full list.

Thomas Ardill
October 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Bothwell Castle, the Donjon from the West 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-bothwell-castle-the-donjon-from-the-west-r1136241, accessed 26 April 2024.