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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales 1798 > Cyfarthfa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Abergavenny: The Ruined Castle Seen across the Usk, with the Sugar Loaf Beyond 1798

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Abergavenny: The Ruined Castle Seen across the Usk, with the Sugar Loaf Beyond’ 1798
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Abergavenny: The Ruined Castle Seen across the Usk, with the Sugar Loaf Beyond 1798
D01655
Turner Bequest XLI 24
Pencil on white wove paper, 294 x 459 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘B___’ bottom right, with a sketch of ?foliage
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘24’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XLI – 24’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is the same view as that roughly noted in the contemporary Dynevor Castle sketchbook (Tate D01494–D01495; Turner Bequest XL 19a–20). The initial ‘B___’ inscribed in the lower right corner seems to have been added at a later date, and may be intended for ‘Brecon’, another town on the Usk with which Turner possibly confused Abergavenny. Alternatively it may note a possible commission, though no finished watercolour of this view is known. The little sketch of foliage beside it has the air of a symbol rather than of a study of some natural detail.
Verso:
Blank, apart from a pencil line (a modern accidental mark?); stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Abergavenny: The Ruined Castle Seen across the Usk, with the Sugar Loaf Beyond 1798 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-abergavenny-the-ruined-castle-seen-across-the-usk-with-the-r1173271, accessed 23 November 2024.