'Castle on a Headland', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Castle on a Headland

From Staffa Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CCLXXIII

Date 1831

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 116 x 186 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D26752

Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 3

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Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Staffa Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 3 Recto:

Castle on a Headland 1831

D26752
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 3

Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘3’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXIII 3’ top right running vertically

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan suggest that this sketch of a building on a headland may be either Dunollie Castle near Oban or Arros Castle on Mull.1 Turner made dozens of sketches of ruins on headlands like this as he steamed around the islands of Mull, Skye and Staffa, many of which look remarkably alike (for example see Tate D26958; Turner Bequest CCLXXV 2a). It is therefore impossible to be certain which castle this sketch depicts.

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner on Mull and Staffa, 1831’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, ‘Staffa Checklist’ [folio 18].

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.