Joseph Mallord William Turner Laugharne Castle: The Ruins Seen from the North 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Laugharne Castle: The Ruins Seen from the North 1795
D00574
Turner Bequest XXVI 21
Turner Bequest XXVI 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 203 x 264 mm
Watermark ‘1794 | J WHATMAN’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Laugharne Castle’ bottom centre, and ‘21’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXVI 21’ bottom left, descending vertically
Watermark ‘1794 | J WHATMAN’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Laugharne Castle’ bottom centre, and ‘21’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XXVI 21’ bottom left, descending vertically
Exhibition history
1896
Fourth Loan Collection, [?Leeds Art Gallery, 1896, National Gallery, London, 1897, Glasgow Art Gallery, 1898–9, National Gallery, London, 1900, Newport Free Library and Museum, 1901–4, Wolverhampton, 1905], Municipal School of Art, Manchester, 1906–8, Nottingham Art Gallery, 1909–11, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1912, [?York City Art Gallery, May–September 1913, Corporation Art Gallery, Bury, 1913, Art Gallery, Swansea, April 1914, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil, 1915, Tate Gallery, London, 1916–21, Newport, 1922, Whitworth Institute Art Galleries, Manchester, 1923–4, Tate Gallery, 1925, Wolverhampton, 1926, Tate Gallery, 1927–30, transferred to the British Museum, London, 1931 (no overall catalogue but numbered 1).
References
1906
A Catalogue of an Exhibition of Studies & Drawings ... by Frederic Shields ...Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Municipal School of Art, Manchester 1906, p.[10] no.1.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.51, XXVI 21, as ‘“Laugharne Castle.”’.
1912
Catalogue of Original Drawings in Water Colour, Etc., by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Lent by the Trustees of the National Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Laing Art Gallery and Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne 1912, p.12 no.50.
1918
Alexander J. Finberg, ‘Further Leaves from Turner’s “South Wales” Sketch-book’, The Sixth Volume of the Walpole Society: 1917–1918, Oxford 1918, p.98, as ‘“Laugharne Castle.”’.
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally.
This is one of the items listed in Finberg’s Inventory as having been included in the Fourth Loan Collection, but which do not tally with those listed by William White in his 1896 catalogue,1 published after the initial showing of the collection at the Ruskin Art Museum, Sheffield (1891–5). They may have been replacements for works which were withdrawn due to over-exposure. The present sheet is recorded in the Manchester and Newcastle catalogues cited here; earlier venues and dates are noted as doubtful.
Technical notes:
The sheet is discoloured from prolonged display.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘21’ and in a ?twentieth century hand ‘Langhaddon’. The reference, by a modern curator, to ‘Langhaddon’ repeats a name occurring in the itinerary at the start of this book (D40555), which, however, refers to Llawhaden Castle, not to Laugharne; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.
Andrew Wilton
April 2012
How to cite
Andrew Wilton, ‘Laugharne Castle: The Ruins Seen from the North 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www