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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Normandy ?1829 > Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lillebonne Castle ?1829

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lillebonne Castle’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Verso:
Lillebonne Castle ?1829
D23769
Turner Bequest CCLIII 36a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a ruined castle, with a church tower at far right. Finberg indicated this sketch as ‘Ruined castle: Lillebonne’,1 and the location has been confirmed.2 In this sketch, Turner shows the castle’s ruined tower at left, arched tower at centre and rounded donjon on the right. (For further information on the castle, see under folio 29 recto; D23754.) To the right of the castle, Turner indicates the tower of the Church of Notre-Dame, Lillebonne.3 (For further information on the church, see under folio 28 recto; D23752.)
Art historian Ian Warrell4 points to this sketch (as well as folios 37 recto and 38 recto, D23770 and D23772, in addition to the preliminary sketch on folio 37 verso; D23771) as also having been referred to by Turner for his watercolour, The Castle at Lillebonne, Normandy, c.1832 (Tate D24807; Turner Bequest CCLIX 242).

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.769.
2
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.3.
3
For a similar view, dating from 1845, see ‘Castle of Lillebonne – General View of Ruins, Church, Etc.’, www.commons.wikimedia.org, accessed 8 May 2017, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lillebonne-Castle-Seine-Maritime-general-view-of-ruins-1845.jpg.
4
Warrell 1999, p.271 no.87.

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Lillebonne Castle ?1829 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lillebonne-castle-r1195675, accessed 20 December 2024.