'Gylen Castle, Kerrera and the Firth of Lorn from the North', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Gylen Castle, Kerrera and the Firth of Lorn from the North

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

D26889

Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 75 a

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Staffa Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 75 Verso:

Gylen Castle, Kerrera and the Firth of Lorn from the North 1831

D26889
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 75a

Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This is the first of twenty-five pages of sketches of Gylen Castle on the island of Kerrera (folios 63 verso–75 verso; D26865–D26889).1 Along with views on folios 74–75 (D26886–D26888), this view is from the north and shows the castle standing on a headland rock at the south of the island. There is another headland at the left from which Turner stood to make some of his sketches of the castle (see folio 70; D26889), and beyond the island is the Firth of Lorn with the coast of Argyll at the left and Mull at the right, and several islands (probably the Garvellachs) in between.

Thomas Ardill
February 2010

Although David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan considered this sketch to be among the last that Turner made of Gylen Castle as he was ‘withdrawing northwards towards the island track’, this assessment contradicts their own statement that the Staffa sketchbook ‘has to be read backwards’. (Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1991, pp.20, 28.) Although it is impossible to know for certain in what order Turner executed his sketches of Gylen Castle, it is possible to read them as starting on folio 75 verso with his approach to the castle from the north, and ending at folio 63 verso when he drew out of sight of the castle as he walked away from it to the west (see folio 73 verso; D26885).

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.