Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- After Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
- Medium
- Line engraving on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 83 × 132 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1988
- Reference
- T05147
Catalogue entry
[from] Fisher's 'Illustrations of Scotland and the Waverley Novels' pub.1836–? 7 [T05146-T05147; complete]
Two line-engravings, comprising two subjects out of a total of six; different papers and sizes
Purchased (Grant-in-Aid) 1988
Prov: ...; N.W. Lott and H.J. Gerrish Ltd, from whom bt by Tate Gallery
Lit: Gerald Finley, Landscapes of Memory: Turner as Illustrator to Scott, 1980
Scott's publisher, Robert Cadell, issued a ‘Magnum’ edition of the Waverley Novels in 1829–33 which proved very popular. Cadell planned to continue his series of publications of Scott's writings illustrated by Turner, which had begun with the Poetical Works (1833–4) and the Prose Works (1834–6), by republishing the novels in thirty volumes, using Turner again as illustrator. Having made plans for the designs with Cadell and the editor, John Gibson Lockhart, Turner embarked on special excursions to France and Scotland in 1834 to collect material for the Waverley project. However, on Turner's return, Cadell did not discuss the proposal further and his apparent unwillingness to proceed with the commission must have disturbed Turner since the loss of such a substantial commission would have been a serious matter.
As a result of the unsatisfactory arrangements with Cadell, Turner did not hesitate to accept an alternative commission which was offered him by the publishing firm of Fisher and Co. in late 1834 or early 1835. According to this arrangement, he was to provide six designs to illustrate Landscape - Historical Illustrations of Scotland and the Waverley Novels. The publication appeared in two volumes, with a descriptive text by the Revd George Newnham Wright and with additional illustrations by less acclaimed artists than Turner, including the caricaturist George Cruikshank. Although no date appears in the published edition, Rawlinson cites 1836–7 as the date of publication, presumably following the dates inscribed on the plates. The British Library catalogue, however, records 1836–8 as the date of publication. The volumes were apparently published in Paris as well as London and America, hence the translated inscriptions of the titles on the plates.
Even after the publication of Fisher's Illustrations of Scotland and the Waverley Novels, Cadell was still determined to go ahead with his scheme for a new edition of the Novels - the Abbotsford edition - before the copyright expired. In 1839 he again asked Turner to illustrate the edition but Turner declined as the publisher wanted the designs to be engraved as woodcuts.
The engravers for these plates, the only ones executed by them for the series, were James Harfield Kernot (active 1828–58) and James Bayliss Allen (1803–76).
T05147 Loch Leven Castle engr. J.B. Allen, pub. 1837
Line-engraving 82 × 132 (3 1/4 × 5 3/16) on India paper laid on wove paper 300 × 437 (11 13/16 × 17 3/16); plate-mark 144 × 222 (5 11/16 × 4 13/16)
Engraved inscriptions: ‘Drawn by J.M.W, Turner, R.A.’ below image b.l., ‘Engraved by J.B. Allen.’ below image b.r., ‘20–351 | Loch-Leven Castle. Le Chateau de Loch Leven. | FISHER, SON & Co. LONDON, & PARIS, 1837’ below image at centre; Turner studio blind stamp bottom centre of image
Prov: Artist's sale, Christie's 25 April 1873 (in 507–50 or 554)
Lit: Rawlinson II 1913, no.565, later state
Published: Vol.II, p.21, ‘The Abbot’. Original water-colour: private collection (Wilton 1979, no.1139).
Published in:
Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1986-88, London 1996
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