JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER
British, 1775–1851
Warkworth Castle, Sunset
Watercolour over pencil, heightened with pen and brown-black ink on paper
14. x 20 inches (36.5 x 50.7 cm)
Framed: 25¾ x 31¼ inches (65.5 x 79.4 cm)
Executed circa 1799, this watercolour is one of two very different known finished watercolours Turner made depicting Warkworth Castle,
a 14th-century fortress near the coast of Northumberland. Each was based on a drawing in the North of England sketchbook from Turner's
sketching tour of 1797. The present work, depicting the castle in the centre of the composition with the River Coquet in the foreground,
was based on the drawing on page 38 of the sketchbook [TB XXIV 38].
The other watercolour of this subject, Warkworth Castle, Northumberland – thunder storm approaching at sunset, depicting the castle
on the right of the composition, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1799 and is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
It was based on the drawing on page 40 of the sketchbook [TB XXIV 40].
Provenance
William Leader (1767-1828)
John Temple Leader (sale, Christie's, London, 18 March, 1843, lot 49, sold for £22 11s 6d)
Thomas Rought, London (acquired at the above sale)
John Dillon (sale, Christie's, London, 29 April, 1869, lot 132, sold for £105)
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London (acquired at the above sale)
Abel Buckley, 1904
Thomas W. Wright, 1905 (sale, Christie's, London, 27 April, 1923, lot 96, sold for £304)
Leggatt, London (acquired at the above sale)
Appleby Brothers Ltd., London
Lord Beaverbrook, May 1957 (acquired from the above)
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, New Brunswick, 1959-2023 (bequeathed by the above)
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above)
Exhibited
Glasgow, International Exhibition, 1901, no. 812
London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1905, no. 36
Literature
Sir Walter Armstrong, Turner, London, 1902, p. 283
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, London, 1979, p. 328, no. 257, illustrated
P.O.R.
J.M.W. TURNER – Warkworth Castle, Northumberland -
thunder storm approaching at sunset (1799)
[VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM]