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 > Dolbadarn Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dolbadarn Castle from the East 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dolbadarn Castle from the East’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Verso:
Dolbadarn Castle from the East 1799
D02049
Turner Bequest XLVI 38a
Pencil on white wove paper prepared with a pale blue ground, 130 x 79 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing is continued on folio 39 recto opposite (D02050). This is an unusual view of Dolbadarn, taken from the lower slopes of Snowdon; the surrounding mountains are distorted and reduced in scale, and Llyn Peris is reduced to little more than a round pool far below. It must be assumed that Turner assembled elements from the landscape at Dolbadarn, composing them arbitrarily into this scene in which scale is not consistent and topography is falsified. Other views in which Dolbadarn figures are folios 21 recto, 41 recto and 44 recto (D02026, D02054, D02060).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Dolbadarn Castle from the East 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-dolbadarn-castle-from-the-east-r1179908, accessed 26 April 2024.