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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North of England 1797-1801 > Tweed and Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Durham: The Castle, Cathedral, and Framwellgate Bridge 1797

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Durham: The Castle, Cathedral, and Framwellgate Bridge’ 1797
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
Durham: The Castle, Cathedral, and Framwellgate Bridge 1797
D01018
Turner Bequest XXXV 15
Pencil on white wove paper, 274 x 370 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with notes including ‘RB’, ‘BX’, ‘6’ and ‘7’ in the drawing
Stamped in black ‘XXXV – 15’ bottom left, descending vertically
The subject was drawn with the page turned horizontally. A finished watercolour of this subject is in the collection of the Royal Academy, London;1 it is severely faded. Turner made it for John Hoppner, RA (1758–1810), presumably in recognition of Hoppner’s support for his (unsuccessful) application for Associateship of the Academy in 1798. He executed one, presumably for similar reasons, for Joseph Farington (1747–1821), probably based on the drawing on folio 29 recto (D01084; Turner Bequest XXXV 82), though the exact relationship between sketch and finished work is debated. See also folio 14 recto (D01012; Turner Bequest XXXV 9), a subject apparently chosen by another Academician, Robert Smirke, for a watercolour that was never realised.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.327 no.249, reproduced.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram; inscribed by John Ruskin in brown ink ‘98’ (circled in pencil); ?in a later hand in blue crayon ‘20’; and by A.J. Finberg in pencil ‘141.15’.

Andrew Wilton
August 2010

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Durham: The Castle, Cathedral, and Framwellgate Bridge 1797 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-durham-the-castle-cathedral-and-framwellgate-bridge-r1150184, accessed 19 April 2024.