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 > Drawings Related to the Welsh Tour of > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lake Llanberis and Dolbadarn Castle 1799-1800

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lake Llanberis and Dolbadarn Castle’ 1799-1800
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lake Llanberis and Dolbadarn Castle
D04175
Turner Bequest LXX X
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 553 x 761 mm
Inscribed by Turner in brown ink ‘53’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXX – X’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although not a finished work, this subject was brought to a point nearing completion after Turner had explored the motif in a series of monochrome studies of a view that evidently fascinated him. Dolbadarn Castle was the focus of many works in watercolour and oil executed about 1800, including his Diploma submission to the Royal Academy on election as Academician in 1802, the painting of the castle that he had shown in the 1800 exhibition there (Royal Academy of Arts, London).1
The preparatory studies are Tate D04180, D04181 and D04182 (Turner Bequest LXX c, d, e); a further, more detailed study is Tate D04176 (Turner Bequest LXX Y). The colour monochrome studies make use of an emphatic violet or purple; here the palette, still almost monochrome, is reduced to a cool and uniform grey, creating an atmosphere of magical calm. Indicated only in pencil, a boat with two people on board in the right foreground scarcely disturbs the surface of the still lake.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.9–10 no.12, pl.7 (colour).
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Lake Llanberis and Dolbadarn Castle 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-lake-llanberis-and-dolbadarn-castle-r1180069, accessed 25 April 2024.