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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Chester Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Helmsley Castle: The West Tower from the South, Seen through Trees 1801

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Helmsley Castle: The West Tower from the South, Seen through Trees’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Helmsley Castle: The West Tower from the South, Seen through Trees 1801
D05076
Turner Bequest LXXXII 3
Pencil on white wove paper, 256 x 161 mm
Blind–stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘1’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXXII – 3’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The West Tower of Helmsley Castle is the most substantial of the remains of the castle built on twelfth–century foundations by William de Ros in the late thirteenth century; the other extant structures are the remains of a sixteenth–century manor house built by Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland. The castle was slighted by Parliamentary forces under Sir Thomas Fairfax after it was surrendered to them in 1644 during the Civil War. From 1632 the manor house belonged to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whose son inherited it and in 1657 married Fairfax’s daughter Mary. A later owner, Thomas Duncombe, abandoned the castle for a new house close by, Duncombe Park, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh. Duncombe Park and its neighbourhood were to be the subject of a number of watercolour studies made by John Sell Cotman (1782–1842) around 1806.
The drawings as far as folio 13 recto (D05088) appear to show Helmsley. A very similar view, which appears to be a copy of this drawing by another hand, is in the 1801 Helmsley sketchbook (Tate D02466; Turner Bequest LIII 3a).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Helmsley Castle: The West Tower from the South, Seen through Trees 1801 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 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-helmsley-castle-the-west-tower-from-the-south-seen-through-r1178643, accessed 21 November 2024.