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 > Edinburgh, 1818, Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Sketches associated with 'Borthwick' 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches associated with 'Borthwick'’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 68 Verso:
Three Sketches associated with ‘Borthwick’ 1818
D13582
Turner Bequest CLXVI 68a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 90 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Belongs to | Borthwick’ top left; and [indecipherable] top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
None of the three sketches on this page is easily identifiable owing to their slight and rapid nature. However, Turner’s inscription, ‘belongs to Borthwick’, at least suggests a general geographical area, around the village of Borthwick about eleven miles south-east of Edinburgh. Based on this, the sketch at the top right, which is drawn with the sketchbook turned to left may be Borthwick Church, which, like the building in the sketch, is on a hill and has a gabled roof with a tall spire at one end. The sketch next to this may be another view of the church. Filling most of the present page and continuing at the left to folio 69 (D13583), is an extremely slight sketch of a landscape. There are trees in the foreground at each side and a building in the distance.

Thomas Ardill
January 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Three Sketches associated with ‘Borthwick’ 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2008, 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-three-sketches-associated-with-borthwick-r1132127, accessed 26 April 2024.