Artist J.M.W.Turner 1775 - 1851. A prodigious and gifted English watercolour artist. He became known as 'the painter of light'. Some of the most skilled and expressive watercolours may be found in Turners English Castle paintings

English Castles: Norham Castle on the River Tweed

Retrospect: Norham Castle, 1798-1840 This is one of many unfinished oil paintings based on the plate from the Liber Studiorum R57 dated probably around 1835-40, or later and is Turner at the height of his development for topographical subjects. Turner visited Norham Castle on his tour of Northern England in 1797. His sketchbooks from that tour contains a single drawing of the castle on the cliff above the River Tweed. From this drawing Tuner exhibited a watercolour in the Royal Academy in 1798, titled Norham Castle-Summer's Morn'. Turner returned to this drawing in 1815 to reference a plate for the Liber Studiorum, and late for the series illustrating the Rivers of England around 1822-4. The watercolour for this plate is said to be the beginnings of Turners prismatic use of colour i.e. juxtaposed touches of pure blue and yellow. Later used by the Impressionist painters to create vibrancy.