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 Linlithgow Palace and St Michael's Church 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Linlithgow Palace and St Michael's Church’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Recto:
Linlithgow Palace and St Michael’s Church 1818
D13659
Turner Bequest CLXVII 43
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil ‘ash sycamore’ bottom left; ‘Rushes’ bottom right
Inscribed in blue ink ‘43’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 43’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Continuing from folio 44 verso (D13658; CLXVII 42a) are trees in the foreground of a view of Linlithgow Palace and St Michael’s Church from across Linlithgow Loch to the west. The trees are identified by Turner’s inscriptions as ‘ash’ and ‘sycamore’ and at the right there are ‘rushes’ down by the water’s edge. Despite this attention to the local flora, Turner’s 1821 watercolour of Linlithgow Palace (Manchester City Art Galleries)1 features a much more generically Italianate tree reminiscent of Richard Wilson’s and Claude Lorrain’s example.
At the right of the page are two small studies of ornate architecture features similar to these on folio 48 (D13665; CLXVII 46) and perhaps relating to the sketch of St Michael’s Church on folios 43 verso–44 (D13656–D13657; CLXVII 41a–42), or to Linlithgow Palace on folios 45 verso–46 (D13660–D13661; CLXVII 43a–44), and may show the old entrance at the east (see Scotch Lakes sketchbook, 1801, Tate D41240, D02955; Turner Bequest LVI 22).

Thomas Ardill
March 2008

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426 no.1068.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Linlithgow Palace and St Michael’s Church 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-linlithgow-palace-and-st-michaels-church-r1132206, accessed 26 April 2024.