J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Bass Rock and Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bass Rock 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bass Rock’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Recto:
Bass Rock 1818
D13387
Turner Bequest CLXV 38
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXV 38’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of the Bass Rock is taken from the west, presumably from a boat, and is one of many studies of the island that Turner made in preparation for his illustration to Scott’s Provincial Antiquities: Bass Rock, circa 1824 (watercolour, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight).1 The viewpoint is similar to the one on the previous page of this sketchbook (folio 37 verso; D13386; CLXV 37a), and shows the rock with its fortifications on the left. The various sketches concentrate on different aspects of the subject, and in this one Turner is interested in recording the shape of the steep edges of the island by adding shading and other small details. Turner’s Bass Rock is a composite of various different studies from 1818 and 1822, drawing on information from each to recreate the subject in watercolour back in the studio.

Thomas Ardill
October 2007

1
Wilton 1979, p.426 no.1069.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Bass Rock 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2007, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bass-rock-r1131929, accessed 25 April 2024.