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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > North Wales 1799-1801 > Lancashire and North Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Caernarvon Castle from the West 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Caernarvon Castle from the West’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Verso:
Caernarvon Castle from the West 1799
D01945
Turner Bequest XLV 23a
Pencil on white wove paper, 225 x 329 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘W’ left of centre in the drawing, on house
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned horizontally, this is one of three studies in this book of Caernarvon Castle made from a boat in the Menai Strait. The other two are on folios 21 verso and 22 verso (D01941, D01943). Here the boat has moved round to the west, less close in than in the sketch D01943, and preparing to enter the estuary of the River Seiont, where Turner made three more drawings on the versos of folios 24, 25 and 26 (D01947, D01949, D01951). The Eagle Tower dominates the composition in the centre, with the town encircled by its walls in front of the castle, to the left; the mountain in the right background is Moel Eilio. For the Seiont, see the entry for D01947.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Caernarvon Castle from the West 1799 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 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-caernarvon-castle-from-the-west-r1177820, accessed 23 September 2024.