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 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from the East 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from the East’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Recto:
Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from the East 1818
D13599
Turner Bequest CLXVII 8b
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Red’ bottom left; ‘Bass’ centre right; ‘Sand’ bottom right
Inscribed in blue ink ‘8B’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 8B’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page forms half of a view of Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from an outcrop of rocks to the east (continued on folio 8 verso; D13598; CLXVII 8a). Bass Rock is shown on the present page, partially obscured by a shelf of rocks in the foreground and inscribed ‘Bass’. This was the sketch upon which Turner based his watercolour of Tantallon Castle, 1821 (Manchester City Galleries),1 for Scott’s Provincial Antiquities, although the castle itself is more closely based on the sketch on folios 5 verso–6 (D13593–D13594; CLXVII 5a–6). In the finished design, the composition is compressed horizontally and the castle and island are brought closer together. (See 8 verso for more information).
There are small pale brown marks at the top and bottom left and a blue ink mark at the bottom left mirrored on folio 8 verso.

Thomas Ardill
February 2008

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426 no.1067.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from the East 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-tantallon-castle-and-bass-rock-from-the-east-r1132147, accessed 24 April 2024.