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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Normandy ?1829 > Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lillebonne Castle ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lillebonne Castle’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Verso:
Lillebonne Castle ?1829
D23771
Turner Bequest CCLIII 37a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a ruined castle on a hill, with a clump of trees to the left of the castle, and a church tower faintly indicated in the distance at far right. Finberg noted it simply as a ‘Ruined castle’,1 but art historian Ian Warrell has subsequently indicated2 that this drawing (supplemented by folios 36 verso, 37 recto and 38 recto; D237769–D23770, D23772) was used as the preliminary sketch by Turner for his watercolour, The Castle at Lillebonne, Normandy, c.1832 (Tate D24807; Turner Bequest CCLIX 242). Lillebonne is also noted as the location elsewhere.3
The shapes of the castle buildings and church tower render them identifiable as Lillebonne castle and the Church of Notre-Dame, Lillebonne. (For information on the castle, see under folio 28 recto, D23754; and for the church, under folio 28 recto; D23752.)
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.769.
2
Warrell 1999, p.271 no.87.
3
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.3.
Technical notes:
There is a slight brownish stain at the left edge of the page, below this a slight tear in the paper, and a speck of brownish discolouration towards the centre of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Lillebonne Castle ?1829 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lillebonne-castle-r1195677, accessed 19 September 2024.