Dolbadarn Castle
J. M. W. Turner, 1800
Dolbadarn Castle is an oil painting on panel that Turner created around 1798-1799, based on sketches from a tour of North Wales that took in Dolbadarn, Llanberis and other parts of Snowdonia. Many of those studies survive in a sketchbook held by Tate Britain. Back in his London studio, Turner turned this material into a number of more finished paintings of North Wales, and this one is now at the National Library of Wales.
The work carries particular weight because it was one of two pictures Turner submitted in 1800 as his diploma works for the Royal Academy. In effect, it was his calling card to the institution that mattered most to his career.
The painting shows an episode from 13th-century Welsh history of some significance. It depicts Owain Goch, brother of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, being led by soldiers to the castle prison. Owain is recorded as imprisoned there between 1255 and 1277. His confinement, shown through the figure dressed in red, left his brother Llywelyn free to concentrate on uniting Wales against the English.
In formal terms, Turner uses the contrast between light and dark to create a mood of danger and desolation. That dramatic intensity places the picture within the Sublime, the awe provoked by vast and threatening nature. Turner often paired his works with verse, and here he included lines lamenting the solitude of the tower where Owain wasted away.
The frame was specially commissioned for the picture from John Jones of London, in the 1940s. The acquisition by the National Library of Wales was made with the help of the National Art Collection Fund and the National Lottery.
- Painter
- J. M. W. Turner
- Date
- 1800
- Medium
- oil paint, panel
- Dimensions
- 46 × 30 cm
- Museum
- National Library of Wales Framed works of art collection
- Genre
- landscape painting
- Depicts
- Dolbadarn Castle
More works by J. M. W. Turner
