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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dudley: The Castle from the South; the East Front of St Thomas's Church 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dudley: The Castle from the South; the East Front of St Thomas's Church’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 63 Recto:
Dudley: The Castle from the South; the East Front of St Thomas’s Church 1830
D22093
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 61
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘61’ bottom left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 61’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this is a view of the ruins of Dudley Castle from the south-east. Modern developments make the viewpoint difficult to establish, but similar views are possible, with trees obscuring much of the castle, from around Watsons Green Road and Wolverton Road on Kates Hill, overlooking Dudley’s Southern Bypass. The castle is seen in the wider landscape from similar angles on the verso (D22094) and subsequent pages.
Below is a separate study of the east front of Dudley’s St Thomas’s Church; its spire is seen in various other sketches of the town. There are similar studies in the contemporary Birmingham and Coventry sketchbook (Tate D22395; Turner Bequest CCXL 39). For other views of Dudley see under folio 23 recto (D22016).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dudley: The Castle from the South; the East Front of St Thomas’s Church 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-the-castle-from-the-south-the-east-front-of-st-r1148734, accessed 26 April 2024.