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 Caernarvon Castle Silhouetted against the Sky, with Mountains in the Distance 1799

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Caernarvon Castle Silhouetted against the Sky, with Mountains in the Distance’ 1799
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 54 Recto:
Caernarvon Castle Silhouetted against the Sky, with Mountains in the Distance 1799
D02077
Turner Bequest XLVI 54
Pencil on white wove paper prepared with a grey-blue ground, 79 x 130 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘54’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XLVI – 54’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this is one of a sequence of views in this book in which Turner rehearses possible treatments of the subject of Caernarvon Castle as a watercolour. It is shown in silhouette, as seen from the Menai Strait, here from a rather closer viewpoint than the others, which are on folios 49 verso, 50 verso, 51 recto and 52 recto (D02069, D02071, D02072, D02074); see the entry for D02069 for further comment on the series.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Caernarvon Castle Silhouetted against the Sky, with Mountains in the Distance 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-silhouetted-against-the-sky-with-mountains-r1179936, accessed 26 April 2024.