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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Arthur's Seat, Calton Hill and The Firth of Forth 1818

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 47 Recto:
Arthur’s Seat, Calton Hill and The Firth of Forth 1818
D13405
Turner Bequest CLXV 47
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXV 47’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Finberg suggests, this sketch shows the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh.1 The drawing was perhaps made from Blackford Hill (from which Turner sketched the city, see folio 46 verso; D13404; CLXV 46a) towards the Firth of Forth with the island of Inchkeith and the north shore of the Firth of Forth behind. In the middle distance are the rooftops of Edinburgh, represented with simple step-shapes, and the towering Nelson’s Monument on Calton Hill. Framing the composition on the right is Arthur’s Seat.

Thomas Ardill
November 2007

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.480, CLXV 47.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Arthur’s Seat, Calton Hill and The Firth of Forth 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-arthurs-seat-calton-hill-and-the-firth-of-forth-r1131947, accessed 28 March 2024.