'Linlithgow', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Linlithgow

From Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLXVII

Date 1818

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 112 x 186 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D13675

Turner Bequest CLXVII 51

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 54 Recto:

Linlithgow 1818

D13675
Turner Bequest CLXVII 51

Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ink ‘51’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 51’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Continued from folio 53 verso (D13674; CLXVII 50a), which shows Linlithgow Loch from the west, here Linlithgow Palace, St Michael’s Church, the Town House, and the town of Linlithgow are seen from left to right from a high vantage point across Linlithgow Loch, framed on either side by trees.

The double-page sketch comes in the middle of a series in this sketchbook of views of Linlithgow from the west (see folio 44 verso; D13658; CLXVII 42a), and is the most panoramic, taking in about a kilometre from south (folio 53 verso) to north (present page). To make the sketch Turner walked around to the west side of the Loch to the area called Linlithgow Bridge. This position offered the widest prospect of the area, enabling the artist to see and record the relationship between the palace and surrounding landscape.

Thomas Ardill
March 2008

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.