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

As in another sheet in this section (Tate D25492; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 369), Turner here included more than one colour study, orientated at different angles. Eric Shanes related this sheet to the History of Richmondshire ‘colour beginnings’, also giving tentative identifications of the two subjects and presenting the possibility that the very loosely handled studies functioned as a paper test-sheet.1 His suggestion that the upper study shows Barnard Castle is plausible, as it seems to relate to one of the three studies on the afore-mentioned other sheet in this section identified as such. There is no related final watercolour or print of the subject for Richmondshire, but the later England and Wales watercolour (Yale Center for British Art) and print (Tate impressions: T04517, T04518) of Barnard Castle may present a developed version of the subject.2

Shanes suggested that the other study on the sheet could be a view of Castle Head and Morecambe Bay from above Lindale3 (unrealised in the published Richmondshire series). For a colour study of this subject thought to be for the later England and Wales series see Tate D25473; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 350. The foreground marks in the lower right in particular seem to correspond to the later colour study, but this can only be a tentative identification.

See also the introduction to the Richmondshire ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this study has been assigned.

Technical notes:

There is notable use of a dry brush technique in the lower study. Fingerprints are visible in the upper area depicting the castle.

Verso:

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