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 and Lake Llanberis from the North-West 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dolbadarn Castle and Lake Llanberis from the North-West’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
Dolbadarn Castle and Lake Llanberis from the North-West 1799
D02060
Turner Bequest XLVI 44
Pen and brown ink on white wove paper, 79 x 130 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘44’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XLVI – 44’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like some of the other studies of Dolbadarn Castle in this book, on folios 38 verso–39 recto and 40 verso (D02049–D02050, D02053), this appears to be a composition study rather than a sketch from the motif. However, it renders the topography of the place rather more accurately than those examples, while somewhat exaggerating the height of the bluff on which the castle stands. The design is close to that of the drawing he made on the spot in 1798 in the Hereford Court sketchbook (Tate D01300; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 47), against which he recorded several commissions; this may have been copied from it as a concise paraphrase. A finished watercolour of the subject was formerly in the collection of the Williams Wynn family.
Verso:
Blank; washed with a pale buff ground.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Dolbadarn Castle and Lake Llanberis from the North-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-dolbadarn-castle-and-lake-llanberis-from-the-north-west-r1179919, accessed 19 April 2024.