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 > Hereford Court Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dolbadarn Castle and Lake Llanberis 1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dolbadarn Castle and Lake Llanberis’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 76 Recto:
Dolbadarn Castle and Lake Llanberis 1798
D01300
Turner Bequest XXXVIII 47
Pencil on white wove paper, 229 x 332 mm
Some blue paint splashes; blind-stamped lower right with Turner Bequest monogram
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘47’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXXVIII 47’ bottom left, descending vertically
Dolbadarn Castle, a thirteenth-century tower on a promontory overlooking Llyn Padarn immediately north-west of Snowdon, is a particularly remote and romantic ruin having associations with the heroic age of Welsh history, a period that Turner consciously evoked when he painted his picture of Dolbadern Castle, North Wales, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800 (Royal Academy, London),1 with lines of verse (apparently composed by himself) about the incarceration here of the Welsh prince Owain Goch. He submitted the picture as his Diploma piece when he was elected a full Academician in 1802. A small oil on panel of the same composition, formerly in the collection of Turner’s friend and patron in later years, H.A.J. Munro of Novar, has recently been rediscovered and is in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.2 However, these share an upright composition not directly derived from this page of the Hereford Court book.
A small watercolour (now much faded) based on this study was in the collection of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and a colour study possibly made as part of his preparation for that work is Tate D04166 (Turner Bequest LXX O). It is likely that he executed others, since the back of the sheet is covered with the names of patrons who apparently wished for versions of it. However, no other watercolours are traced. Another drawing of Dolbadarn is the North Wales sketchbook (Tate D01388; Turner Bequest XXXIX 33) and he was to return to the site the following year; see the Dolbadarn sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest XLVI).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.9–10 no.12, pl.7 (colour).
2
Not listed separately in ibid., but discussed p.10 under no.12.
Verso:
Inscribed ‘Wm Blake immedly’, ‘Mr John Trower, | Clapton’, ‘No 2 Tanfield Court | Temple’, ‘11 [altered from ‘10’] Guineas’, ‘Mr R [or ‘N’?] Power Dublin | or No 18 Old-Bond St’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram
The number of names noted by Turner on the back of this sheet indicates the popularity of Dolbadarn Castle as a subject. William Blake of Newhouse was a pupil of Turner; see also folio 81 verso (D01304; Turner Bequest XXXVIII 50a).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Dolbadarn Castle and Lake Llanberis 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-dolbadarn-castle-and-lake-llanberis-r1173216, accessed 27 December 2024.