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

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have identified this view, drawn with the sketchbook turned to the right, as the head of Loch Lomond.1 The sketch must therefore have been made from the road (inscribed ‘Rd’ at the bottom right of the sketch) north of Ardlui at the northern end of the loch, and shows the River Falloch winding its way to the loch with the mountains at the east end of the loch in the distance. Ardlui can be seen at the head of the loch and may be labelled ‘Ordley’, which is presumably Turner’s attempt at spelling the name of the village. Other notes on the page refer to the ‘river’ and perhaps the ‘falls’ of Falloch. Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan have also suggested that a roughly circular shape in the centre of the foreground may be a bridge or water-wheel. A sketch later in this book, inscribed ‘Head of Lo[mond]’, shows the head of Loch Lomond from somewhere near Tarbet (folios 86 verso–87; D26606–D26607).

This sketch shows that Turner steamed up the west side of the loch, stopping briefly at Luss and Ardlui before heading south down the east side of the loch, passing Rob Roy’s Cave (folio 77 verso; D26589). He then landed at Inversnaid where he began his journey along the north sides of Loch Arklet and along Loch Katrine to the western end of Loch Achray.

Turner used the spare space at the fore-edge of the page on a later occasion to make a sketch (with the book turned in the opposite direction) of the Paps of Jura perhaps from Finlaggan on the island of Islay (see folio 72; D26578).