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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Ports of England c.1822-8 > Ports of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castle on Sea Coast, possibly at Walmer c.1822-3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Castle on Sea Coast, possibly at Walmer’ c.1822-3
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto
Castle on Sea Coast, possibly at Walmer c.1822–3
D17729
Turner Bequest CCII 10
Watercolour on white wove paper, 257 x 178 mm
Watermarked ‘J wha | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘10’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCII–10’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner renders the silhouetted profile of a fortification on a headland and coast beyond with a remarkable economy of means. This is an instantaneous and fluid recording of form, a pictorial jotting. Similar handling can be found in Turner’s Skies sketchbook of about 1816–8 (Tate D12450–D12526; Turner Bequest CLVIII 2–69.
According to the Turner scholar Eric Shanes, this drawing formed the basis of a loose watercolour study of Walmer Castle, near Deal, Kent, of about 1825 (Tate D25477; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 354).1 Turner took pencil sketches of what is believed to be either Walmer in the Holland sketchbook of 1825 (Tate D19392–D19396; Turner Bequest CCXIV 278a–280a).
1
Shanes 1997, p.61, no.43.
Verso:
Blank

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Castle on Sea Coast, possibly at Walmer c.1822–3 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-castle-on-sea-coast-possibly-at-walmer-r1148299, accessed 25 April 2024.