'Distant Mountains -Loch Ard', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Distant Mountains -Loch Ard

From Stirling and Edinburgh Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CCLXIX

Date 1834

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 190 x 113 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D26330

Turner Bequest CCLXIX 36 a

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Stirling and Edinburgh Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 36 Verso:

Distant Mountains –Loch Ard 1834

D26330
Turner Bequest CCLXIX 36a

Pencil on off-white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘1’ top centre ?‘Loch ard’ top right, ‘2’ upper left, ‘Gold Sky’ lower centre

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

The sketches on this page may have been made at Loch Ard, which indeed may be inscribed at the top of the page. The bottom sketch depicts a view across a loch to a distant mountain which resembles Ben Lomond as seen from across Loch Ard. Turner sketched this view in the Loch Ard sketchbook: Tate D26677 (Turner Bequest CCLXXII 6). The sun sits low above the mountain and is reflected in the water below. Turner’s inscription above may note ‘Gold Sky’. The other three sketches are likely to be other views of the loch. The top two may be two halves of the same view as they are labelled ‘1’ and ‘2’.

This is one of four pages of sketches of mountain scenery. While some of the sketches appear to depict Loch Ard, others are more likely to be of the Pass of Leny: folios 35–36 verso (D26327–D26330). It is therefore difficult to identify these sketches with certainty.

Thomas Ardill
February 2011

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.