Joseph Mallord William Turner Tancarville Castle ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 46 Verso:
Tancarville Castle ?1829
D23789
Turner Bequest CCLIII 46a
Turner Bequest CCLIII 46a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.770, CCLIII 46a, as ‘Tancarville Castle. See Engraving, “Wanderings by the Seine,” 1834, p.56’.
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, p.150 under no.264.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.413 under no.957.
1999
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, p.273 under no.120.
Art historian Andrew Wilton notes that Turner made this and other rapid sketches of Tancarville castle in this sketchbook.3 Wilton also states4 that Turner’s later watercolour, Tancarville, with the Town of Quillebeuf in the Distance (‘Back View’), c.1832 (Tate D24695; Turner Bequest CCLIX 130),5 which was engraved for Turner’s Annual Tour – Wanderings by the Seine, 1834 (Tate impression: T04701), was based on this sketch. However, the viewpoint in the watercolour appears to be from the opposite direction, depicting the front (from the east) rather than the back (from the west) of the castle, and therefore rather different.
In the sketch, Turner picks out the shapes of the castle buildings in a few strokes with emphasis on the two pointed roofs of the towers against the cliffs behind and to the left, the latter cliffs highlighted by a jagged line. The position and shape of the tall structure to right of the towers correspond to the castle’s Coquesart Tower. (For further information on Tancarville castle see under folio 46 recto; D23788.)
Art historian Ian Warrell6 agrees that this drawing corresponds to the front view of the castle, as he states that it (and folio 47 verso; D23791) was used as the preliminary sketch for Turner’s watercolour, Tancarville from the East (‘Front View’), c.1832 (Tate D24693; Turner Bequest CCLIX 128),7 which was also engraved for the 1834 Annual Tour (Tate impressions: T05597, T06226).
Caroline South
May 2017
How to cite
Caroline South, ‘Tancarville 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