West Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight

This sheet features West Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight, originally built in 1539 on the headland as a device fort built by King Henry VIII to protect England against the invasion by the French. Doomer introduced dramatic flair to his topographically precise landscape with the smoke of canon fire billowing out over the calm sea. The artist made the drawing during his visit to the Isle of Wight in the fall of 1646, carefully creating his sketch by layering brown, ochre, and gray watercolor over black chalk before he applied white opaque watercolor to create highlights. His inclusion of a donkey laden with goods, a male traveler who guides the animal with a stick, and a woman with a water jug on her head underscores his understanding of the remote English island as a rural location.