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Dunstanburgh Castle, north-east coast of Northumberland, sunrise after a squally night
(1798)
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 92.2 × 123.2 cm
- Accession Number
- p.313.3-1
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of the Duke of Westminster, 1888
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
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This picture is the first painting in oils sold by JMW Turner from the walls of the Royal Academy. Turner first sketched Dunstanburgh Castle during a tour of the north of England in 1797. The dramatic fourteenth-century ruin high on the cliffs of the Northumbrian coast became a favourite subject. A number of charcoal drawings of the ruin, seen from various aspects, appear in Turner’s ‘North of England’ sketchbook (Tate Britain, London), and the castle was also the subject for a series of tone and colour studies, several watercolours and two oil paintings. It is hardly surprising that the young Turner, with a growing interest in the classics and in history painting, found this theatrical and poignant scene so alluring. This painting is an early working of what was to become Turner’s grand theme: man’s heroic fragility in the face of the powers of nature. By depicting the castle as an ‘heroic’ presence above dark, soaring cliffs and a violent ocean, Turner invokes a sense of the Sublime, an aesthetic popularised in the eighteenth century by the British statesman and writer Edmund Burke (1729–1797).
X-radiography taken prior to recent cleaning reveals a building in the centre left of the composition painted out by the artist, and alterations to the headland and horizon.
- Subjects (general)
- Architecture Landscapes
- Subjects (specific)
- castles (fortifications) coastal landscapes dawn (time of day) Dunstanburgh Castle (ancient site) ruins seashores sunrise United Kingdom (nation)
- Movements
- Romanticism (modern European styles)
- Frame
- English, late 18th–early 19th century
Frame
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The painting is one of the first works dated before 1800 to enter the collection and thus has a particular value as a reference point for painters in Melbourne. The painting entered the collection with this frame. The frame and the painting were separated in the mid-twentieth century but brought together again in 1992.1 It is assembled from carved timber sections and is a remarkable example of a high level of craftsmanship in frame construction.
Records reveal that on the back of the frame was previously a label for London framemaker Foord & Dickinson, who operated under this name from 1859 to 1899.2 It was thought that the label indicated manufacture of the frame by this firm during this period. However, recent research suggests a dating from the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century.
Publications by British frame historians and conservators in recent years have enhanced our understanding of the framing of Turner’s paintings. 3 The small number of original frames remaining on Turner’s early works are neoclassical in style with a deep scotia. Some have reeding at the top edge and a plain scotia, while others have the scotia richly decorated with acanthus leaves. The frame on Dunstanburgh Castle appears to be a sophisticated version of these known original frames. Moreover, the predominance of carved decoration would be unusual for a British mid-nineteenth century frame. Foord & Dickinson produced a wide range of frames, including historical reproductions. However, these tended to be made with moulded ornaments rather than carved wood. The existence of the framer’s label may be explained by other services offered by the firm, such as frame and picture restoration or art transport and installation, rather than production of the frame.Notes
1 The existence of the frame was brought to our attention by Jennifer Phipps, who had noted its presence in the storeroom of the State Library of Victoria. The painting had been re-framed in a swept edge Louis XV revival frame.
2 See National Portrait Gallery London British picture framemakers 1650-1950, accessed 27 Feb 2025.
3 The Frame Blog, ‘Turner’s Picture Frames: Part 1’, The Frame Blog, March 6 2013, accessed 7 Jan. 2025; The Frame Blog, ‘Turner’s Picture Frames: Part 2’, The Frame Blog, April 27 2013, accessed 10 Jan. 2025; The Frame Blog, ‘Turner’s Picture Frames: Part 3’, The Frame Blog, November 28 2017, accessed 7 Jan. 2025.
- Framemaker
- Unknown - 19th century
- Date
- late eighteenth century to early nineteenth century
- Materials
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The frame is made almost entirely of timber, though it is not carved from a solid section. It is composed of finely-carved lengths of running ornament assembled onto a basic profile. The separate parts of the construction are not easily identified; the intention is that the construction be read as a whole. The basic profile and each of the applied ornamental sections are mitred at the corners. The leaves at the centres and corners of the leading edge are made of composition. The structure is re-enforced on the reverse. The surface is gilded throughout with gold leaf, presenting a highly finished, satin sheen.
- Frame Condition
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Good original condition, though in parts the gilding has been worn and restoration of the surface has taken place.
- Dimensions
- 126.6 x 157.2 x 18.0 cm; sight 90.0 x 120.7 cm
- More Information
- National Portrait Gallery