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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Kenilworth Castle from the South 1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Recto:
Kenilworth Castle from the South 1830
D22032
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 31
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ’31’ bottom left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 31’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this slight sketch, Kenilworth Castle is seen from the south, with the Saintlowe Tower on the left, Leicester’s Building to the right and the Great Tower rising between them on the north side of the inner court. There is a more detailed version on the verso (D22033).
Most of the sketches between folios 27 recto (D22024) and 37 verso (D22045) show Kenilworth. For the history of the castle and Turner’s subsequent watercolour, which Eric Shanes has described as a ‘synthesis’ of sketches between folios 28 verso (D22027) and 37 verso,1 see under folio 29 recto (D22028). The scribbled forms in the left foreground of the current drawing may indicate the cattle and milkmaid incorporated in the finished design.

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Shanes 1979, p.156

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Kenilworth Castle from the South 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-kenilworth-castle-from-the-south-r1148673, accessed 28 March 2024.