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

Turner had toured extensively in South Wales in 1795, and in 1798 he had covered some of the same ground before turning north for Snowdonia, a new geographical experience that extended his technical resources and gave him material for a more ‘Sublime’ repertory of subject matter. This had only whetted his appetite and in 1799, by way of Lancashire, he came back to the mountainous region equipped with sheets of Whatman paper much larger than any he had used before, on which he made watercolour studies, apparently direct from the motif – some of the most remarkable works ever executed in the medium. They stimulated more finished studies, probably done later in London, and provided matter for several exhibited watercolours. It is clear that some of the unfinished studies are records of ideas, often extremely ambitious, for subjects that he never fully realised. Oil paintings, too, resulted from this ferment of landscape inspiration, and it was a Welsh subject, Dolbadarn Castle, North Wales that was to ...