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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and Isle of Wight 1795-1800 > Isle of Wight Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight 1795

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight 1795
D00432
Turner Bequest XXVI 25
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 204 x 264 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXIV 25’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a slightly closer view of the castle than that on folio 24 recto (D00431), taken from Clatterford. Finberg suggests1 that the distant tower is that of Newport Church, but as Dearden notes it is in fact the ‘truly monumental’2 Perpendicular tower of St Mary’s, Carisbrooke. Turner used the study as the basis for a pupil’s copy drawing (Tate D00881; Turner Bequest XXXIII J). He later executed a close paraphrase of the subject on a sheet watermarked 1807 (Tate D08274; Turner Bequest CXXI R).3
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally.
1
Finberg 1912, p.89.
2
Nikolaus Pevsner and David Lloyd, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, The Buildings of England, Harmondsworth 1967, p.737.
3
Dearden 1979, pl.4.
Technical notes:
A piece torn from the outer edge of the page at the bottom left has been made up.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-carisbrooke-castle-isle-of-wight-r1141010, accessed 31 October 2025.