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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Swans Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Caerphilly Castle: the North Wall, with the Postern and West Tower 1798

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Caerphilly Castle: the North Wall, with the Postern and West Tower’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Caerphilly Castle: the North Wall, with the Postern and West Tower 1798
D01680
Turner Bequest XLII 5
Pencil on buff laid paper, 125 x 174 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Ditto’ bottom right, descending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XLII – 5’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketch was made with the page turned horizontally. Other drawings of Caerphilly in this book are on folios 1 verso–2 recto and 31 verso–32 recto (D01677–D01678, D01737–D01738; Turner Bequest XLII 2–3, 62–63). Three larger studies are in the 1798 Cyfarthfa sketchbook (Tate D01636, D01637, D01639; Turner Bequest XLI 8, 9, 10a). The number of drawings of the castle no doubt reflects the fact that Turner had been commissioned to make a view of it by a Mr Blackshaw, as recorded in a note on the flyleaf of the contemporary Hereford Court sketchbook (Tate D01249; Turner Bequest XXXVIII, opposite inside back cover).

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Caerphilly Castle: the North Wall, with the Postern and West Tower 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-caerphilly-castle-the-north-wall-with-the-postern-and-west-r1173876, accessed 24 April 2024.