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

This sketch, made over two pages (continued on folio 34; D13515), is one of three for which Finberg notes ‘See Engraving in Part VI. of Scott’s “Provincial Antiquities.”’1 (see Scotch Antiquities Tate D13678–D13679, D13680; Turner Bequest CLXVII 52a–53a). All three show Linlithgow Palace from the east or north-east with Linlithgow Loch in the foreground and the Bathgate Hills beyond, and relate to Turner’s final design for the Provincial Antiquities: Linlithgow Palace, 1821 (Manchester City Galleries).2 The watercolour draws upon all three sketches. It is closest in composition to the first two (D13678, D13679), but takes the foreground details of the nearside of the loch and the framing trees from the middle study of the third (D13680).

The present drawing provides Turner with architectural information about the palace. Drawn in careful outline with a few details such as the windows, here is the basic structure of the building seen from the east upon which Turner based his painting, adding details from other studies made closer to the subject.