'The King's Landing at Leith', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

The King's Landing at Leith

From King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CC

Date 1822

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 114 x 187 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D17632

Turner Bequest CC 71 a

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 71 Verso:

The King’s Landing at Leith 1822

D17632
Turner Bequest CC 71a

Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Blindstamped with the Turner Bequest stamp bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Gerald Finley associates this sketch, made with the sketchbook inverted, with ‘The King’s Landing at Leith’.1 Although the flotilla of barges, shown on the opposite page (D17633) is not present, the image shows the point at which George IV alighted. The view is similar to the sketches on folios 58 verso and 66 verso (D17698, D17622) which show the arrival of the royal barge. Comparison with these two sketches explains the rather slightly sketched details. At the left is the Signal House and beneath this, along the quayside, are rows of figures ready to cheer the King’s arrival. There are more figures at the right standing on the yardarms of ships at anchor beyond a drawbridge to the south. Turner made one more drawing of the subject, with the King having just arrived on the landing stage, on a loose sheet of paper (Tate D17667; Turner Bequest CCIII J).

Thomas Ardill
September 2008

Finley 1981, p.85.

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.