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

This is the left (and principal) part of a two-part panorama of Skipton Castle from the north, drawn with the pages turned horizontally and continued to the right on folio 15 recto opposite (D11064). It is one of the most distant views of the castle in a series that includes folios 26 verso and 27 verso (D11078, D11080), which precede this, together with the rectos of folios 171 and 172 (D11337, D11339; Turner Bequest CXLV 170, 171, near the beginning of this sketchbook as Turner used it, but probably made on the same occasion), and culminating in a detailed study in the Yorkshire 4 sketchbook (Tate D11454; Turner Bequest CXLVII 7a). This sketch is upside-down in relation to the main sequence (see the sketchbook’s Introduction).

Turner visited Skipton at both the beginning and end of his tour of 1816, on 17 July and 11 August, according to the present author.1 These sketches relate to the second visit. Others, recording views from below on Eller Beck, occur at the beginning of the sketchbook’s sequence, starting on folio 186 recto (D11367; Turner Bequest CXLV 185).