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

Auckland Castle’s Gothic deer shelter stands in the foreground, with the east end of the castle’s chapel dominating the skyline to the south-west. The slope up to the castle is now heavily wooded. In the distance to the left of the shelter is Newton Cap Bridge across the River Wear, later masked from this direction by Newton Cap Viaduct just downstream. This is one in a sequence of views between folios 21 verso and 27 recto (D12345–D12354), following the course of the River Gaunless from south to north anti-clockwise around the castle towards the River Wear.

The numbers inscribed on the shelter indicate its articulation. There are fifteen open arches along the near side, surmounted by seven incised Greek cross motifs, and six arches on this side of the central opening on the receding side. For the histories of the castle and deer shelter respectively, see the entries for folio 22 recto and 24 recto (D12346, D12349).

Owing to a typographical error, this page is cited in Finberg’s Inventory of the Turner Bequest as ‘25’ when it should be ‘26’, the number stamped on it. The Inventory gives the correct numbers for adjacent drawings, i.e. ‘25’ and ‘26a’ for folio 25 recto and the verso of the present leaf respectively (D12351, D12353).