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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Cyfarthfa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner St Donat's: The Castle, Church and Watchtower Seen from the North 1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St Donat's: The Castle, Church and Watchtower Seen from the North’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
St Donat’s: The Castle, Church and Watchtower Seen from the North 1798
D01653
Turner Bequest XLI 22
Pencil on white wove paper, 290 x 464 mm
Stamped in black ‘XLI – 22’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
A finished watercolour based on this drawing was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801 (currently untraced).1 In it the castle buildings are relegated to the background, while the foreground landscape takes the form of an elegantly balanced design in the manner of Claude Lorrain (1604/5–1682).2
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.331 no.279, reproduced; see also Andrew Wilton, Turner in Wales, exhibition catalogue, Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno 1984, p.71 no.101, reproduced.
2
See Butlin 1975, p.48, and Wilton 1975, p.66; and in general Ian Warrell and others, Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 2012.
Technical notes:
There is some damage to the sheet at the bottom centre. There are blue and sienna colour trials at the bottom left.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘no no’; not stamped. The sheet has been recently backed with tissue paper.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘St Donat’s: The Castle, Church and Watchtower Seen from the North 1798 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 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-st-donats-the-castle-church-and-watchtower-seen-from-the-r1173269, accessed 20 May 2024.