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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tancarville Castle ?1829

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 50 Recto:
Tancarville Castle ?1829
D23796
Turner Bequest CCLIII 50
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘50’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 50’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a rough sketch, drawn horizontally, of a castle on a rocky outcrop. Finberg identified this sketch as ‘Tancarville Castle’,1 and this location has been confirmed.2 Turner concentrates on details of the buildings such as the structure and pointed roof of the tower on the left, and indicates the remaining landscape in a few simple lines. (For further information on the castle, see under folio 46 recto; D23788.)
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.770.
2
Guillaud and others 1981, fig.658, p.325; ?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.5.
Technical notes:
There is a very faint brownish stain at top left of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Tancarville 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-tancarville-castle-r1195702, accessed 28 March 2024.