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 Edinburgh Castle, Details 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Edinburgh Castle, Details’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Recto:
Edinburgh Castle, Details 1818
D13411
Turner Bequest CLXV 50
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ?‘James Carol | Ar[...]on | [?]James Mr Early | J’ Crawford | S Par | all 3 [...]roy’ top right and ‘[...] Dark Brown’ right of centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Having sketched the castle from the Esplanade on the previous page of this sketchbook (folio 51 verso; D13445; CLXV 67), Turner then moved closer to draw the Royal Palace. The main sketch on this page shows the top of the palace with its turrets and chimneys. The step-shape at the top left of the page may show the castle wall at the south of the castle. At the top of the page seems to be a plan or diagram, perhaps of part of the castle, that Turner has scribbled out, with another plan beneath.
The page has various inscriptions, but none are particularly legible. In the top right are a list of names, and written across the diagram is an illegible word and then ‘dark brown’.

Thomas Ardill
November 2007

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Edinburgh Castle, Details 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-edinburgh-castle-details-r1131957, accessed 19 April 2024.