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

The Eridge estate lies just south of Tunbridge Wells, off the Crowborough road.

Drawn with the sketchbook inverted, and continued on folio 16 (D10231; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 15), this view of Eridge Castle served as the basis for a watercolour of about 1816 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester)1 but probably dates from Turner’s visit to John Fuller in East Sussex in 1810. The watercolour is first recorded in the collection of John Dillon and there is no evidence that it was part of the set of watercolours owned by Fuller (see Introduction to the sketchbook). However, it is similar in size and treatment while the property belonged to one of Fuller’s friends – the 2nd Earl of Abergavenny, who had rebuilt the earlier house in 1787 as a faux castle in Gothic Revival style, bristling with turrets and towers. The castle was demolished in 1938–9.

As Hartley suggests, if not intended for Fuller himself the watercolour could have been commissioned by Lord Abergavenny. There are further views of the mansion and parkland, presumably drawn on the same occasion, in the Sandycombe and Yorkshire sketchbook (Tate D08989, D08991 and, closest to the present drawing, D08996; Turner Bequest CXXVII 18a, 19a, 22a).