Turner’s View

Artistic leanings

Joseph Turner is known as ‘the painter of light’ for his wondrously luminous landscape paintings. Born in London in 1775, he was a child prodigy who enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools at the age of 14 and exhibited his first work there, A View of the Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth, one year later.Turner travelled extensively during his life, filling sketchbooks with pencil and watercolour sketches that would later be used as reference for larger watercolours and oil paintings. One location that would prove to be particularly inspirational was Dunstanburgh Castle on Northumberland’s coast.

Turner recorded views of Dunstanburgh Castle in his ‘North of England’ sketchbook of 1797. Although he only visited Dunstanburgh once, it was a subject he returned to many times afterwards, possibly more than any other subject. For Turner, Dunstanburgh Castle was a perfect metaphor for the passing of time and the power of nature. However, he wasn’t above embellishing the view, and many of his paintings of the castle have numerous craggy details not found then or now. Turner’s 1799 oil painting, Dunstanborough Castle, Northumberland, is an atmospheric piece depicting a stormtossed sea with the castle framed by a dramatic sky. It is also oddly but wonderfully inaccurate geographically.

Strangely, Dunstanburgh Castle was a relative failure, which is why it was ruinous by Turner’s time. It was built in the early 14th century by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. Dunstanburgh was then improved by John of Gaunt in the 1380s, for this was the time of the Anglo-Scottish wars. However, the size of the castle and its distance from the Scottish Border eventually counted against it. Expensive to maintain, by the 15th century the structure was decaying and largely abandoned. But then, arguably, without this change in fortune, Turner would not have found artistic inspiration on his one and only visit…