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 Calton Gaol, from Calton Hill 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Calton Gaol, from Calton Hill’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 63 Verso:
Calton Gaol, from Calton Hill 1818
D13434
Turner Bequest CLXV 61a
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this drawing is the Governor’s House of Calton Gaol built in 1817 on Calton Hill. The building is seen from the hill to the south, looking along a path that leads your eye from the foreground, past North Bridge and the edge of Castle Rock on the left, round to the Governor’s House in the centre of the picture. A figure wearing a skirt and shawl stands in front of the building, perhaps looking up towards it, or out at the city of Edinburgh. In either case it is clear from her position at the edge of the path that she has paused for a moment; a gesture suggesting poignancy. There is another drawing of the gaol on folio 64 verso (D13436; CLXV 62a).

Thomas Ardill
November 2007

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Calton Gaol, from Calton Hill 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-calton-gaol-from-calton-hill-r1131980, accessed 11 May 2024.