1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.241, XCIII, ‘inside of cover, commencement of a pencil sketch of castle (probably Windsor) with foliage’.
1993
David Hill, Turner on the Thames: River Journeys in the Year 1805, New Haven and London 1993, p.164, as ‘Windsor Castle from the west’.
1997
Anthony Bailey, Standing in the Sun: A Life of J.M.W. Turner, London 1997, pp.92, 426 note 5.
1786
The first of three very slight, indeed almost imperceptible pencil sketches of Windsor Castle; see also folios 1 and 2 (D05766, D05768). These are contemporary with others, mainly from downstream, in the Wey, Guildford sketchbook; for example Tate D06356; Turner Bequest XCVIII 135a). Here the view is from the west, as recognised by Hill. Turner’s note about the ‘fall of Rome’ anticipates the classical subjects to be found elsewhere in the sketchbook and perhaps arose from browsing in his copy of Oliver Goldsmith’s Roman History, from the Foundation of the City of Rome, to the Destruction of the Western Empire, 1786 (private collection).
David Blayney Brown
October 2007
