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 45 Recto:
Lillebonne Castle ?1829
D23786
Turner Bequest CCLIII 45
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘45’ top right ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 45’ top right ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch of a castle on a hilltop. Finberg identified the location as ‘Lillebonne Castle’,1 and the location has been confirmed.2 Turner depicts the variously shaped castle buildings in some detail, with the rounded donjon tower at centre; with a few simple lines he indicates the ruined brickwork at the top. A church tower, recognisable by its outline as that of the Church of Notre-Dame, Lillebonne, is included at far right, down the hillside. (For further information on the church see under folio 28 recto; D23752.) Hillside vegetation is indicated roughly at bottom left. Part of the spire of Notre-Dame, depicted on folio 44 verso opposite (D23785), continues into the lower centre part of this page.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.770.
2
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999), p.3.
Technical notes:
Brownish discolouration owing to damage likely caused by the 1928 Tate Gallery flood (see the technical notes to the sketchbook’s Introduction) is visible on the right part 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-r1195692, accessed 26 April 2024.