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 > North Wales Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Figures by the Water, with Ships and Buildings at Tygwyn Ferry, and Harlech Castle in the Distance 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Figures by the Water, with Ships and Buildings at Tygwyn Ferry, and Harlech Castle in the Distance’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 95 Recto:
Figures by the Water, with Ships and Buildings at Tygwyn Ferry, and Harlech Castle in the Distance 1798
D01459
Turner Bequest XXXIX 95
Pencil and watercolour on white wove writing paper, 170 x 266 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXXIX 95’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sensitive study was developed from a drawing made on the spot, perhaps on this page, as preparation for the oil painting Harlech Castle, from Twgwyn Ferry, Summer’s Evening Twilight, executed for the 5th Earl Cowper (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven). Much of the damage now apparent is no doubt a result of its use for this purpose; Turner’s note on the verso records the commission. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1799.1 Compare the view on folio 91 recto (D01448; Turner Bequest XXXIX 86); and see the colour study (Tate D01904; Turner Bequest XLIV b) which is partly based on this drawing.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.6–7 no. 9, pl.8 (colour).
Technical notes:
The sheet was detached and mounted separately for exhibition; its backing was removed as a result of the Tate Gallery flood of 1928. The sheet was trimmed along the top of the drawing, towards the gutter, and the top right corner torn away; both were made good before it was bound back in. The paper is stained and discoloured, apparently for the reason mentioned above.
Verso:
Inscribed by Turner in pen and brown ink ‘117 Harlech | Study for Ld Cooper’s Picture’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Figures by the Water, with Ships and Buildings at Tygwyn Ferry, and Harlech Castle in the Distance 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-figures-by-the-water-with-ships-and-buildings-at-tygwyn-r1173690, accessed 16 January 2025.