'Staffa from the North', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Staffa 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

D26817

Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 40

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 40 Recto:

Staffa from the North 1831

D26817
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 40

Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘40’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXIII 40’ top right running vertically

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This view of Staffa was made from the north as Turner approached the island on the steamboat, the Maid of Morven (see folio 43; D26823). The artist visited the island on a day trip from Tobermory on Mull to see Fingal’s Cave, which he had been asked to paint in watercolour to be engraved as the vignette for the Lord of the Isles volume of Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works: Fingal’s Cave, Staffa circa 1833–4 (whereabouts unknown).1 Having made a quick sketch recording the general shape of the island on the reverse of this page (folio 40 verso; D26818) Turner was now able, as he drew closer, to make a more detailed study of the island, this time including the basalt columns which make it so famous. Further views of the island are on folios 8 verso–9, 18 verso–22 verso, 24 verso, 27 verso–30 verso, 34 verso, 35, 39 and 42 (D26760–D26761, D26777–D26785, D26788, D26794 –D26800, D26806, D26807, D26815, D26821).

With the sketchbook turned to the right are the continuations of two sketches from folio 39 verso (D26816).

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.429 no.1089.

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.