A tale of a frame

J. M. W. Turner ingeniously used thick nautical cable painted gold to provide borders for his paintings in an exhibition in Rome in 1828.¹ The Frame Blog, ‘Turner’s Picture Frames: Part 2’, The Frame Blog, April 27 2013,, , accessed 10 Jan. 2025. Such an unconventional method of framing was rare for Turner, who, over his career, used a range of typical frame styles from the time. He was mindful of how his paintings were framed and hung. As frame historian Lynn Roberts notes, Turner’s ‘principal care with regard to frames seems … to have been the maintenance of a tonal equilibrium in his work, by offsetting it with a wide margin of gold, then considered a “neutral” colour’.²ibid.

The frame around Dunstanburgh Castle is neoclassical in style, decorated with classical motifs such as acanthus leaves as well as bundles of reeds along the top edge, the part of the frame closest to the viewer. At its centre is a deep hollow or scoop (known as a scotia), with a brightly gilded surface that contrasts the detailed ornamentation on either side. Individual sections of decoration in finely hand-carved wood are attached to the main frame structure. The only exception is the few leaves that wrap the top-edge reeding. These were moulded in composition, a glue-based material. The predominance of carved decoration distinguishes the frame from standard nineteenth-century British frames, which typically featured less expensive moulded embellishments.

Research by British frame historians and conservators in recent years has enhanced our understanding of the framing of Turner’s paintings.³ibid. and The Frame Blog, ‘Turner’s Picture Frames: Part 1’, The Frame Blog, 6 March 2013, , accessed 7 Jan. 2025 While early in his career Turner preferred classical-style frames, from the 1830s he switched to Louis XV revival frames.

Conservation records reveal Dunstanburgh Castle arrived at the NGV in its current frame in 1888. On the back of this frame there was once a paper label for Foord & Dickinson, London frame-makers from 1858 to 1899. This firm made frames for many artists and collectors over seventy years, including Turner from at least 1840, when the company was known simply as ‘Foords’.

Due to the existence of this framer’s label, it was presumed the frame on Dunstanburgh Castle was made by Foord & Dickinson and therefore dated after 1858. However, the extensive carved decoration on the frame and its similarity to existing original examples suggests an earlier dating somewhere in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Foord & Dickinson produced a wide range of frames, including historical reproductions, but these tended to be made with moulded ornaments rather than carved wood. The label may instead relate to other services offered by the firm, such as restoration or transport and installation, rather than the production of the frame.

By 1968, when the NGV Collection was moved from the State Library to its new premises on St Kilda Road, the Turner painting had a different frame altogether, one in the French Louis XV revival style. The choice of this frame style likely reflects its previous widespread use by art dealers and institutions as a default reframing option for many high-value artworks. Unfortunately, most of Turner’s paintings in collections worldwide have lost their original frames, due to a previous lack of understanding of the value and significance of frames as important cultural objects in their own right, and the insights frames offer into the decisions and preferences of the artist or early owners.

One of the earliest known and still-existing frames chosen by Turner is that of Dolbadern Castle, North Wales, 1800, in the Royal Academy Collection. This frame has a reeded top edge and deep scotia and is a simpler version of the frame on Dunstanburgh Castle. Other original settings for Turner paintings include variations of scotia frames, including those with the hollow richly decorated with acanthus leaves.

The frame in which Dunstanburgh Castle arrived in 1888 to the NGV was later found in storage, and following restoration was finally returned to the painting in 1992. This could be the frame chosen by Turner for the display of his painting at the Royal Academy in 1798, or it may have been commissioned by the first owner of the work and based on Turner’s preferred style. With mysteries still to uncover, this rare and beautiful frame nonetheless provides a refined setting for this significant and much-beloved painting.

Holly McGowan-Jackson is NGV Senior Conservator of Frames and Furniture.

This article first appeared in NGV Magazine, March–April 2025

For more about this Turner masterpiece, read Sunrise after a squally night by Dr Ted Gott.