Joseph Mallord William Turner Borthwick Castle 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Recto:
Borthwick Castle 1818
D13724
Turner Bequest CLXVII 76
Turner Bequest CLXVII 76
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘28’ on the nearside of the castle, ‘9’ on the side of the tower
Inscribed in blue ink ‘76’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 76’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘28’ on the nearside of the castle, ‘9’ on the side of the tower
Inscribed in blue ink ‘76’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 76’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.487, CLXVII 76, as ‘Borthwick Castle.’.
1910
Alexander J. Finberg, Turner’s Sketches and Drawings, London 1910, p.107 (facing ) plate 61 illustrated.
1961
Alexander J. Finberg, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Second Edition, Revised, with a Supplement, by Hilda F. Finberg, revised ed., Oxford 1961, pp.53 plate 12, 54.
1980
Gerald Finley, Landscapes of Memory: Turner as Illustrator to Scott, London 1980, pp.53–4, reproduced pl.12.
1982
Evelyn Joll, ‘Review: Turner in Scotland. Aberdeen’, The Burlington Magazine, vol.124, No.957, December 1982, pp.787, [788] illustrated in black and white fig.51 as ‘Borthwick Castle’.
1975
Joseph R. Goldyne, J.M.W. Turner: Works on Paper from American Collections, exhibition catalogue, University Art Museum, Berkeley, California 1975, p.96.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426.
1980
Michael Spender and Malcolm Fry, Turner at the Bankside Gallery: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Drawings & Water-colours of British River Scenes from the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Bankside Gallery, London 1980, p.116.
1982
Francina Irwin, Andrew Wilton, Gerald Finley and others, Turner in Scotland, exhibition catalogue, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum 1982, pp.43, 45 reproduced.
1990
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Human Landscape, London 1990, pp.11, 347 note 3.
1997
Martin F. Krause, Turner in Indianapolis: The Pantzer Collection of Drawings and Watercolors by J.M.W. Turner and his Contemporaries at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis 1997, p.134.
2000
Eric Shanes, Evelyn Joll, Ian Warrell and others, Turner: The Great Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2000, p.122.
This is recognised by Finberg and subsequent scholars as the basis for Turner’s watercolour, Borthwick Castle, 1818 (Indianapolis Museum of Art)1 for the Provincial Antiquities, as it indeed provides the most detailed sketch of the castle itself and the appearance of its surrounding landscape.2 However the composition of the watercolour draws upon the sketch on the opposite sketchbook page, folio 83 verso (D13723; CLXVII 75a), and elements from both sketches are combined in a pencil study in the Scotland and London sketchbook (Tate D13815; Turner Bequest CLXX 2) made in preparation for the watercolour. The view is from the north-west and shows the castle beyond the River Gore with a small cottage below it to the left. Around the castle, the curtain wall has lost most of its height, though the entrance at the west side and the corner tower just beyond it still stand, and are visible in the picture. At the top of the castle Turner has began to draw a row of stone corbels, stopping halfway along but noting that there are ‘28’ of them and ‘9’ on the side of the near tower (the second tower has eight). In the watercolour and engraving from it (T06057)3 the castle becomes narrower and the number of corbels is reduced. This is typical of the Provincial Antiquities watercolours which are often compressed horizontally from the original sketches (often made over two sketchbook pages) before being converted in the engravings to a slightly squarer format again (see Tour of Scotland 1818 Tour Introduction for more information).
Thomas Ardill
April 2008
How to cite
Thomas Ardill, ‘Borthwick Castle 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www