Flint was the first castle to be built during Edward I's military campaign in Wales of 1276-77. Surrounded by the waters of the Dee estuary, it was built to a four-square plan, but with the unusual feature that one of its round corner towers was larger than the others and isolated from the rest of the castle, forming a separate keep. Turner visited Flint on all three of his tours through North Wales, in 1794, 1798 and 1799. Flint Castle was included in one of the first plates issued of Turner's Liber 'Studiorum' in June 1807, although mysteriously the image is entitled 'Landscape on the French Coast'. This watercolour was not made until 1834 and was one of three paintings done of the site for his extended series of engravings 'Picturesque Views in England and Wales'. (A smaller study is in a private collection in Tokyo, Japan). The painting was acquired by John Ruskin who later wrote of it:"This is the loveliest piece of pure watercolour painting in my whole collection; nor do I know anything elsewhere that can compare, and little that can rival, the play of light on the sea surface and the infinite purity of the colour in the ripples of it as they near the sand." Text by: Department of Art, National Museums & Galleries of Wales.