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 Edinburgh from the North-West 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Edinburgh from the North-West’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Verso:
Edinburgh from the North-West 1818
D13685
Turner Bequest CLXVII 56a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made a series of distant views of Edinburgh from the north-west, and over folios 59 verso to 64 it is possible to witness his progress towards the city (D13685–D13694; CLXVII 56a–61). Continuing from folio 60 (D13686; CLXVII 57) are trees in the foreground behind which is part of the view towards Edinburgh.
Its seems that Turner was commissioned to provide a picture of Edinburgh from the Water of Leith for the Provincial Antiquities, but the work was never completed. Ian Warrell has suggested, however, that a watercolour beginning of about 1821 may show this view and be based on sketches from 1818 (Tate D25351; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 229).1

Thomas Ardill
March 2008

1
Katrina Thomson, Turner and Sir Walter Scott: The Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 1999, pp.37, 47 notes 93 and 94.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Edinburgh from the North-West 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-edinburgh-from-the-north-west-r1132232, accessed 27 April 2024.