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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Birmingham and Coventry Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dudley: St Edmund's Church with the Castle Beyond 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dudley: St Edmund's Church with the Castle Beyond’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Recto:
Dudley: St Edmund’s Church with the Castle Beyond 1830
D22413
Turner Bequest CCXL 48
Pencil on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Vaults for ...]’ bottom left and ‘Door’ below church bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘48’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXL – 48’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards confirmed this subject as St Edmund’s Church with Dudley Castle beyond,1 looking north-east along Castle Street. The church, with its Baroque red brick and stone tower, is one of few survivals among modern developments in the immediate area, and the ruined southern defences and keep of the castle are now screened by trees. Turner shows the castle looming over the church although it is less conspicuous in reality, and he may have moved nearer to draw it or deliberately exaggerated its scale. There is a slight continuation of the buildings on the left on folio 47 verso opposite (D22412).
For other views of Dudley, see under folio 39 recto (D22395).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dudley: St Edmund’s Church with the Castle Beyond 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-dudley-st-edmunds-church-with-the-castle-beyond-r1148563, accessed 25 April 2024.