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 ?Caldicot: The Parish Church, with the Castle to the Right 1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Caldicot: The Parish Church, with the Castle to the Right’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Verso:
?Caldicot: The Parish Church, with the Castle to the Right 1798
D01741
Turner Bequest XLII 66
Pencil on buff laid paper, 174 x 125 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Ditch’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLII – 66’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is continued on folio 34 recto opposite (D01742; Turner Bequest XLI 67). The church in this drawing may be St Mary the Virgin, Caldicot, on the road between Chepstow and Newport; it stands close to the castle. Turner’s itinerary on this tour took him from Chepstow north up the River Wye to Monmouth, so he would have had to make a considerable detour to take in Caldicot, but it is possible that he was drawn there by the promise of its substantial ruins. However, the castle itself bears only a passing resemblance to the structure in Turner’s drawing.

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘?Caldicot: The Parish Church, with the Castle to the Right 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-caldicot-the-parish-church-with-the-castle-to-the-right-r1173937, accessed 26 April 2024.