'Rosyth Castle and a view East along the Firth of Forth', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Rosyth Castle and a view East along the Firth of Forth

From Edinburgh, 1818, Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLXVI

Date 1818

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 90 x 112 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D13547

Turner Bequest CLXVI 50

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Edinburgh, 1818, Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 50 Recto:

Rosyth Castle and a view East along the Firth of Forth 1818

D13547
Turner Bequest CLXVI 50

Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 112 mm

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This ‘tower of the Forth’, as Finberg described it, is Rosyth Castle, drawn three times on two previous pages of this sketchbook (folios 48 verso–49; D13544–D13545). The view is looking west along the north bank of the Firth of Forth with a boat pulled up on the shore near a hut or house towards North Queensferry in the foreground. This same boat is shown in a sketch on folio 49. Rosyth, drawn as a rectangular outline, is beyond and in the distant shore may be Limekilns or Charlestown. The sketch continues in folio 49 verso (D13546) at the left where it shows the south back of the river.

At the top of the page is another view along the Firth of Forth, this time looking in the opposite direction at Inchgarvie to the east. (See folio 49 verso).

Thomas Ardill
January 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.