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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Dynevor Castle Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Figures and Boats with a Castle Beyond 1798

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Figures and Boats with a Castle Beyond’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Verso:
Figures and Boats with a Castle Beyond 1798
D01554
Turner Bequest XL 54a
Pencil on white wove paper, 135 x 95 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘39’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XL – 54 a’ top right, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, this very rough sketch, which is continued on folio 57 recto opposite (D01555; Turner Bequest XL 55), does not appear to be a record of any observed scene; it seems to be an idea for a picture.
The composition includes elements that may be associated with Turner’s large watercolours of Pembroke Castle (National Museum Wales, Cardiff; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto),1 and with the smaller watercolour of the same castle still in the Turner Bequest (Tate D01877, Turner Bequest XLIV A), or alternatively with the view of Caernarvon Castle at sunset, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1799 (private collection).2

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, respectively p.331 no.280, pl.64 (colour), no.281, reproduced.
2
Ibid., p.328 no.254, pl.47 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Figures and Boats with a Castle Beyond 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-figures-and-boats-with-a-castle-beyond-r1173793, accessed 19 April 2024.