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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Drawings Connected with the Kent and ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Castle on a Wooded Bank above a River, with a Church Spire to the Right 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Castle on a Wooded Bank above a River, with a Church Spire to the Right’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Castle on a Wooded Bank above a River, with a Church Spire to the Right 1798
D01900
Turner Bequest XLIV X
Pencil, watercolour and scraping- and stopping-out on white wove paper, 188 x 260 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLIV – X’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg conjectured that this shows Dynevor Castle1 (see the 1798 Hereford Court and Dynevor Castle sketchbooks; Tate; Turner Bequest XXXVIII, XL), but that seems unlikely, unless it is accepted as a fanciful elaboration of the subject. The church spire in that case would be entirely imaginary, and the river would be the Tywi.
1
A.J. Finberg (died 1939), undated MS note in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, opposite p.109.
Technical notes:
The surface is considerably abraded. The subject drawn inside a ruled black ink border to which the sheet is closely trimmed; it was probably laid down by the artist on a lined mount which has disappeared.
Verso:
Blank; stained from adhesion to an old mount or backing board.

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Castle on a Wooded Bank above a River, with a Church Spire to the Right 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-a-castle-on-a-wooded-bank-above-a-river-with-a-church-spire-r1174963, accessed 22 January 2025.