JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER R.A. 1775-1851

Walter Fawkes

Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, January 1999 (ex catalogue, alongside drawings and watercolours by Turner from the Henry Vaughan Bequest)

Dating from circa 1817, the present work is Turner's only known Irish subject. It depicts Clontarf Castle, Co. Dublin which was the seat of John Vernon whose daughter, Maria Sophia, became the second wife of Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall, Turner's friend and patron.

The castle is set in parkland with peacocks and doves and young ladies conversing with an officer, whilst an older lady peers out of the side door of the castle. The stylistic link with other watercolours drawn for Walter Fawkes is strong, particularly with The West Lodge, Farnley (Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W.Turner, 1979, no.588, Private Collection) and Caley Hall (Wilton, op.cit., no.612, National Galleries of Scotland).

Until the appearance of this watercolour, the evidence for its existence was to be found in the Farnley Hall sketchbook (TBCLIII, p.11v), where Turner listed his watercolours drawn for Fawkes. Under no.36 is Clontarf (previously read as Caltarf by A.J.Finberg). There is no evidence that Turner ever travelled to Ireland and so it is likely that he interpreted a sketch of the castle by another hand, possibly that of Maria Sophia Fawkes herself, who was a talented amateur artist.

Clontarf Castle and village are two miles from Dublin on the shore of Dublin Bay. Clontarf is famous in Irish history as the site of a decisive battle with the Danish invaders who had ruled the area from 896. They were defeated by an Irish army led by Brian Boroimhe in 1014. The castle was built by the Knights Templar in the twelfth century and came into the possession of the Vernon family in the seventeenth century. In the far right corner of the present watercolour is Clontarf Church erected on the site of a monastery founded in 550 A.D. The present watercolour shows the castle before the additions commissioned by John Edward Venables Vernon from the architect William Vitruvius Morrison in 1836-7.

We are grateful to David Hill, Ian Warrell, Eric Shanes, Charles Hind, John Martin Robinson and David Griffin for their assistance in the cataloguing of this watercolour.