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

Five of the six sketches on this page, three of which were made with the sketchbook inverted, are probably connected to what Gerald Finley named ‘the Mission of Sir Walter Scott’,1 Scott’s visit by barge to George IV on the Royal George on 14 August 1822. Scott boarded Admiral Beresford’s barge at Leith Harbour around two o’clock with Robert Peel, Sir Thomas Bradford, Sir William Curtis and several other ‘distinguished gentlemen’, and set off to be the first to greet the king in Scotland. Scott’s mission was to welcome the King and present him with a gift from the Sisters of the Silver Cross, a group of Edinburgh ladies of whom Lady Scott was a prominent member. The gift was a richly jewelled Saltire (St Andrew’s Cross) to be worn round the arm or on a hat bearing in pearls the motto, ‘Riogh Albhain gu Brath’ (Hail to the King of Scotland).2 Scott greeted the King, presented his gift and remained on board till after supper.

Three of the sketches appear to show the arrival of Sir Walter Scott’s barge alongside the King’s yacht, the Royal George. In the centre of the page is a sketch of the yacht (see folio 4; D17514) with a wide ladder against its starboard side to receive the passengers of the barge which is just coming alongside. Inscriptions around the boat describe its colours and the numbers of particular features. There are also two sketches of details from the yacht and barge. Immediately above the drawing is a labelled sketch probably showing the elaborate bow of the barge (‘all black’ ‘blue’ ‘gold bow’), and the yacht’s bow is sketched to the left, this time with the sketchbook turned to the right; a band just beneath the prow is ‘black’.

Two further thumbnail compositions, showing the barge coming alongside the yacht, are boxed off at the top right and bottom left. Both show the yacht with the barge alongside in the top sketch and to the left in the second which was made with the sketchbook turned to the right. The final sketch on the page is just beneath the drawing of the yacht’s bow and shows the view of Leith from the Firth of Forth with the Pentland Hills beyond (see King’s Visit to the Edinburgh 1822 sketchbook Introduction for references to similar views).

There are further sketches of Sir Water Scott’s mission on folios 62, 68–69 verso and 72 verso (D17590, D17625–D17627, D17633). Turner also began, but left unfinished, an oil that Finley had identified as The Mission of Sir Walter Scott, circa 1823 (Tate N02879),3 and used the subject for his title page vignette design for volume 2 of the 1826 edition of the Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland (Tate D13749; Turner Bequest CLXVII B), which was partially based on the sketch on folio 62. The subject was the first composition in Turner’s proposed cycle of nineteen pictures making up a ‘Royal Progress’ (see King’s Visit to Edinburgh 1822 sketchbook Introduction and Tate D40979; Turner Bequest CCI 43a).