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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of Lochmaben Castle, Near Lockerbie 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of Lochmaben Castle, Near Lockerbie’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Verso:
Sketches of Lochmaben Castle, Near Lockerbie 1831
D25878
Turner Bequest CCLXVI 59a
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 114 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘North’ to the right of the top sketch, ‘East’ beneath the second sketch, ‘W’ and ‘N’ above the third sketch down, and ‘g’ [or ‘s’] above the bottom sketch at the bottom left of the page
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned to the right are four close-up sketches of the ruins of Lochmaben Castle (see folio 57 verso; D25874). The sketches show the four sides of the castle ruins and are inscribed ‘North’ (top sketch), ‘East’ (second sketch), ‘W’ and ‘N’ (west and north, third sketch), and what looks like ‘G’, but is more likely to be either ‘E’ or ‘S’ (bottom sketch) standing for East or South. A sketch at the bottom of folio 59 (D25877), which is inscribed ‘West’, also belongs to this group of studies.
Gerald Finley has pointed out that Turner’s sketches indicate that the castle was ringed by trees, and ‘although he could not have seen more than the odd piece of masonry through the trees, Turner jotted down the ruin’s coherent shape with some confidence.’1 This was possible in sketches such as those on folio 59 (D25877) because he studied the castle at close quarters beforehand. There are further close-up sketches on folio 60 (D25879).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Gerald Finley, Landscapes of Memory: Turner as Illustrator to Scott, London 1980, p.93.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches of Lochmaben Castle, Near Lockerbie 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, 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-sketches-of-lochmaben-castle-near-lockerbie-r1134245, accessed 23 April 2024.