Turner watercolour of Flint Castle for auction
Post categories: Visual arts
|11:45 UK time, Friday, 18 June 2010
One of Turner's greatest Welsh landscapes, Flint Castle, is to go under the hammer next month.
Joseph Mallord William Turner's beautiful watercolour sketch over pencil of the castle with the Dee Estuary in the foreground, which dates from the early 1830s, is expected to fetch around £500,000 at the Sotheby's auction on 6 July.
Flint Castle by JMW Turner. Image courtesy of Sotheby's.
Turner completed a second watercolour of the castle in 1835. That is owned by the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and is displayed at the National Museum Wales in Cardiff for around three months of every year.
Other works by Turner that feature Welsh landscapes include Dolbadarn Castle, Ewenny Priory and Harlech Castle.
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Comment number 1.
At 15:23 18th Jun 2010, whisgi wrote:Turner was an artistic genius.
It is such a travesty that the Turner Prize has been repeatedly awarded to mediocre, or even talentless so-called artists.
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Comment number 2.
At 08:08 21st Jun 2010, nick-bbclocal-north-east-wales wrote:This is such an evocative painting, but to give it some context, painting a picture of what life was like in Flint in the 1800s, at that time of the painting, I suggest you read local historian Vicky Perfect's writings - it seems life was very hard with little reward.
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Comment number 3.
At 16:46 6th Jul 2010, Laura C - BBC Wales Interactive wrote:The BBC Wales News website has reported today that the painting sold at auction for an impressive £541,250 - beating its top guide price of £500,000. Take a look at a new audio slideshow about Turner's Flint Castle on the BBC Local North East website.
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Comment number 4.
At 12:37 27th Jul 2010, U14564209 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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