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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Cowes Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Norris Castle from the Solent, with East Cowes Castle Beyond; a Sailing Boat 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Norris Castle from the Solent, with East Cowes Castle Beyond; a Sailing Boat’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Verso:
Norris Castle from the Solent, with East Cowes Castle Beyond; a Sailing Boat 1827
D17992
Turner Bequest CCVII 1a
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At the top of the page, Norris Castle is seen from the north-east across the Solent. Built in mock-medieval style by James Wyatt (1746–1813) between about 1799 and 1805 for the politician Lord Henry Seymour (1746–1830),1 it stands on the coast of the Isle of Wight a little to the north-east of East Cowes, adjacent to the grounds of Osborne House. The view continues on folio 2 recto opposite (D17993); see also a possible distant view on folio 54 recto (D18093).
Neither of the views Finberg tentatively identified as ‘Norris Point’ and ‘Norris Castle’2 in the contemporary Isle of Wight sketchbook (Tate D20757, D20781; Turner Bequest CCXXVII 16a, 31) show the castle and its setting; rather they are respectively views from and of John Nash’s nearby East Cowes Castle (which does not survive), also seen in distant prospects later in the present book (see under folio 21 recto; D18028), and apparently in the distance on the left of this page. Conversely, in the 1827 Windsor and Cowes, Isle of Wight sketchbook there is a similar clear view of Norris Castle from the sea (Tate D20658; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 38), which Finberg wrongly identified as East Cowes;3 the slight sketch opposite that one (Tate D20657; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 37a) is also likely to show Norris Castle (Tate D20657; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 37a); see also Tate D20668, D20673, D20679 and D20681 (Turner Bequest CCXXVI 44a, 48, 52, 52b).
Below is a study of a small sailing boat, made with the page turned vertically. For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the sketchbook Introduction.
1
See David W. Lloyd and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Isle of Wight, The Buildings of England, revised ed., New Haven and London 2006, pp.195–6.
2
Finberg 1909, II, p.699.
3
Ibid., p.696.
Technical notes:
The fore-edge has suffered a small loss corresponding to the position of the clasp inside the adjacent front cover.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Norris Castle from the Solent, with East Cowes Castle Beyond; a Sailing Boat 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-norris-castle-from-the-solent-with-east-cowes-castle-beyond-r1183480, accessed 21 November 2024.