Joseph Mallord William Turner Corfe Castle: The Castle and Village from the West 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
Corfe Castle: The Castle and Village from the West 1811
D08814
Turner Bequest CXXIV 7
Turner Bequest CXXIV 7
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 170 x 209 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CXXIV – 7’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CXXIV – 7’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1891
Fourth Loan Collection, Ruskin Art Museum, Meersbrook Park, Sheffield, 1891–5, Leeds Art Gallery, 1896, National Gallery, London, 1897, Glasgow Art Gallery, 1898–9, National Gallery, London, 1900, Newport Free Library and Museum, 1901–4, Wolverhampton, 1905, Municipal School of Art, Manchester, 1906–8, Nottingham Art Gallery, 1909–11, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1912, York City Art Gallery, May–September 1913, Corporation Art Gallery, Bury, 1913, Art Gallery, Swansea, April 1914, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil, 1915, Tate Gallery, London, 1916–21, Newport, 1922, Whitworth Institute Art Galleries, Manchester, 1923–4, Tate Gallery, 1925, Wolverhampton, 1926, Tate Gallery, 1927–30, transferred to the British Museum, London, 1931 (no overall catalogue but numbered 28).
References
1896
William White, Notes on a Biographical Series of Fifty Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Belonging to the National Gallery Collection, London 1896, pp.21–2 no.22, as ‘Corfe Castle, Dorset’.
1906
A Catalogue of an Exhibition of Studies & Drawings ... by Frederic Shields ...Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Municipal School of Art, Manchester 1906, p.[10] no.23, as ‘Corfe Castle, Dorset’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.353, CXXIV 7, as ‘Corfe Castle’.
1912
Catalogue of Original Drawings in Water Colour, Etc., by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Lent by the Trustees of the National Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Laing Art Gallery and Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne 1912, p.11 no.36, as ‘Corfe Castle, Dorset’.
1992
Howard J.M. Hanley, Turner in Dorset: Images from the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England, exhibition catalogue, Mulberry Gallery, Weymouth Library 1992, pp.22, 23 no.19, reproduced.
The viewpoint is the western flank of the castle’s mound, looking south-east to the village – the only sketch from within the wards of the castle. There is a more distant view of this side of the castle and village from West Hill, on folios 1 verso–2 recto (D08808, D08809). For the various other drawings of Corfe Castle, see the entry for folio 17 recto (D08826).
Technical notes:
As on folio 8 recto (D08815), the line drawing has been reinforced by rough brown washes, restricted largely to the castle and hillside. A darker area of wash has been worked in while the first was still wet, and finer strokes indicate vegetation in the foreground. A small patch of green on the right presumably signifies foliage. The paper is browned from prolonged display, while the pigments have faded. The edges formerly protected by a display mount are bright where the paper is bare, and the watercolour retains its original strength along the bottom edge.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions by John Ruskin in red ink ‘42’ top right and ‘638’ bottom left. There is some watercolour offsetting from the opposite page (D08815; CXXIV 8).
Matthew Imms
February 2011
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Corfe Castle: The Castle and Village from the West 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www