Ludlow Castle

Maker Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775 - 1851)

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Daten.d.

Mediumwatercolor with scraping out on wove paper mounted on board

Dimensions20 15/16 × 30 1/4 in. (53.2 × 76.8 cm.)

InscribedOn a label on the verso: This original Turner belongs to my son Charles PG to whom he gave it in the spring of 1837 PG

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Label TextTurner considered large, finished watercolors like this one comparable to oil paintings, both in their scale and in the amount of labor required to produce them. Instead of broad, quickly applied strokes, he has built up layers of transparent washes to create a rich, warm glow. The castle, looming over the valley, is silhouetted against a golden sky, with its grounds bathed in soft blue shadow. Though Ludlow Castle is based on a sketch of the castle the artist made on the spot, the drawing is less a response to the specific landscape and atmospheric conditions he experienced than it is a learned reference to past art. With its high, distant viewpoint and gentle, even light, it recalls the timeless, classicizing landscapes of seventeenthcentury French painters (2022).

Object number52.1

Terms