Watercolour · c. 1828 · Carisbrooke Castle Museum
Carisbrooke Castle: Turner's Isle of Wight Watercolour of About 1828
Turner drew Carisbrooke Castle as a young man in 1795 and returned to it in the 1820s for his Picturesque Views in England and Wales. The finished watercolour of about 1828 now belongs to the museum inside the castle itself.
The castle
Carisbrooke Castle is a motte-and-bailey castle standing above and to the south of Carisbrooke village on the Isle of Wight. Its best-known episode came between November 1647 and September 1648, when the deposed Charles I was held prisoner there. The castle is managed by English Heritage, and the Carisbrooke Castle Museum occupies rooms within it.
| Artist | Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) |
|---|---|
| Date | 1828 |
| Medium | Watercolour |
| Collection | Carisbrooke Castle Museum, Isle of Wight |
Turner's first visit in 1795
Turner toured the Isle of Wight in 1795, and the Tate holds several pages from that trip. They include a distant view of the castle, a closer view of the castle and a study of the gateway, all dated 1795, along with a view of Newport with the castle in the distance. The gateway drawing would matter decades later.
A watercolour of a sluice and a watermill with a distant view of Carisbrooke Castle, dated to about 1796, belongs to the same early phase. A later colour study in the Tate, catalogued as c.1807 to 1819, sets a shadowy foreground against the sunlit castle and hilltop, with the castle seen to the north-west in the light of evening.
Picturesque Views in England and Wales
Around the turn of 1824 and 1825 Turner agreed with the print publisher Charles Heath to produce an ambitious series of watercolours to be engraved as Picturesque Views in England and Wales. The engravings were issued in parts from 1827 until 1838, when the series stopped well short of its planned length. Carisbrooke was one of the chosen subjects.
Turner's view of the castle was engraved by C. Westwood in 1830. According to the Tate's catalogue, the print shows the gatehouse from the opposite side of the bridge to the 1795 drawing, but relies heavily on that early sheet for the detail of the building. More than thirty years separate the drawing from its use.
The studies of the 1820s
The Tate also holds watercolour studies of Carisbrooke from the mid-1820s: a distant view dated about 1826 and two further views of the castle catalogued as perhaps 1826 to 1827. In the summer of 1827 Turner stayed with the architect John Nash at East Cowes Castle on the island, his first visit there for over three decades.
The finished watercolour
The finished watercolour, dated about 1828, takes the fourteenth-century gatehouse as its subject, with the causeway that leads up to it. The sheet was once owned by B. G. Windus, the Tottenham collector who built up a large group of Turner watercolours. It has been described as one of the finest sheets in the England and Wales series.
In 2007 the watercolour was acquired for the nation through the government's Acceptance in Lieu scheme and allocated to the Carisbrooke Castle Museum. It has been described as the first work by Turner to enter a public collection on the island, which means that the view of the gatehouse now belongs to the very building it depicts.
Where to see it
The watercolour belongs to the Carisbrooke Castle Museum, inside the castle above Carisbrooke village. Watercolours are sensitive to light and are not always on show, so visitors hoping to see it should check with the museum before travelling. The 1795 drawings, the later studies and impressions of Westwood's engraving are in the Tate's collection in London.
Questions
Where is Turner's Carisbrooke Castle watercolour?
The finished watercolour of about 1828 belongs to the Carisbrooke Castle Museum on the Isle of Wight. It was acquired for the nation in 2007 through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme and allocated to the museum. It had earlier belonged to the collector B. G. Windus, who owned a large number of Turner watercolours at his house in Tottenham.
Who engraved Carisbrooke Castle for England and Wales?
The Tate's catalogue records that Turner's view of Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight was engraved by C. Westwood in 1830 for Picturesque Views in England and Wales. The Tate holds both an etching and a finished line engraving of the plate, each with an image area measuring 166 by 235 millimetres.
When did Turner first draw Carisbrooke Castle?
He drew it in 1795, during a tour of the Isle of Wight made when he was twenty. The Tate holds a distant view, a closer view and a study of the gateway from that trip. The gateway drawing was still useful more than thirty years later, when he worked up the finished watercolour for Heath's series.