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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Richmond Hill; Hastings to Margate ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1816-19

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner)’ c.1816-19
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
Three Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner) circa 1816–19
D10432
Turner Bequest CXL 12
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry) on right, descending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘12’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXL 12’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Two of the sketches of Windsor are very slight continuations of those on folio 11 verso of the sketchbook (D10431). The third is larger, but still perfunctory, and sketched in landscape format. For Windsor Castle in this sketchbook and a connection with Turner’s watercolour (British Museum, London)1 engraved by William Miller in 1831 for Picturesque Views in England and Wales, see note to folio 9 verso (D10427).
Not transcribed by Finberg, Turner’s inscriptions read:
Perfid[ious] Rome
With worse than P[unic] f.[aith] perfidious Rome
Bring the olive with the vengeful asp
Twined around as the means of peace
Her C[hildren] and her arms
The...
Her pride and softly and as fair
He showed ... to her
Conquerer grasps each hapless
Youth

See notes to folio 4 (D10416) for verse related to The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire (Tate N00499)2 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817, and the historical background to the subject.

David Blayney Brown
July 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.397 no.829.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed. 1984, pp.100–1 no.135 (pl.137).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Three Sketches of Windsor Castle from the North-West; Fragments of Verse (Inscriptions by Turner) c.1816–19 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-three-sketches-of-windsor-castle-from-the-north-west-r1131415, accessed 21 November 2024.