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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Studies for Pictures Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Composition Study: Shipping near Caernarvon Castle c.1799

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Composition Study: Shipping near Caernarvon Castle’ c.1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Recto:
Composition Study: Shipping near Caernarvon Castle c.1799
D04102
Turner Bequest LXIX 88
Ink, wash and white gouache on blue laid paper, 135 x 210 mm
Watermark: Strasburg lily (trimmed)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘88’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXIX-88’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
When it was catalogued for the 1984 exhibition Turner in Wales this drawing, made with the page turned horizontally, was identified as a study for the two large watercolours of Pembroke Castle shown in 1801 and 1806 (National Museum Wales, Cardiff; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto),1 as Finberg had suggested.2 It seems however to be a very generalised view of Caernarvon Castle, with the Eagle Tower. Compare the monochrome studies of Caernarvon in the Dolbadarn sketchbook (Tate D02069, D02071, D02072, D02074; Turner Bequest XLVI 49a, 50a, 51, 52).
In the event, this composition was adopted for the Pembroke subjects, while Caernarvon Castle became the subject of two contrasted watercolours, one the distant view with a Bard and his audience, exhibited in 1800 (Tate D04164; Turner Bequest LXX M),3 the other a sunset view, shown in 1799 (private collection).4
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.331 nos.280, 281, the latter reproduced.
2
See Finberg 1909, I, p.172, and Wilton 1984, p.70.
3
Wilton 1979, p.329 no.263, pl.52.
4
Ibid., p.328 no.254, pl.47 (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Composition Study: Shipping near Caernarvon Castle c.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-composition-study-shipping-near-caernarvon-castle-r1177980, accessed 24 September 2024.