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 ... > Academical Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Caernarvon Castle with Ships and Boats c.1798-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Caernarvon Castle with Ships and Boats’ c.1798-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Recto:
Caernarvon Castle with Ships and Boats c.1798–9
D01861
Turner Bequest XLIII 42
Watercolour on blue laid paper prepared with a red-brown ground, 140 x 216 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘42’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XLIII – 42’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned horizontally, this is a slight sketch in which the identity of the castle becomes, as in some other adjacent studies, difficult to determine precisely; compare the contemporary Studies for Pictures sketchbook (Tate D04102; Turner Bequest LXIX 88). However, the present drawing relates closely to the others in this group executed in blue wash, on the versos of folios 42, 43, 44 and 45 (D01860, D01862, D01864, D01866; Turner Bequest XLIII 41a, 42a, 43a, 44a) and so is almost certainly an idea for the large watercolour exhibited in 1799, Caernarvon Castle (private collection).1

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.328 no.254, pl.47 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Caernarvon Castle with Ships and Boats c.1798–9 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-caernarvon-castle-with-ships-and-boats-r1174061, accessed 19 April 2024.