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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Stirling and the West Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ben Lomond From Ben Arthur 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ben Lomond From Ben Arthur’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 60 Recto:
Ben Lomond From Ben Arthur 1831
D26554
Turner Bequest CCLXX 60
Pencil on white wove paper, 201 x 125 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘60’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 60’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These two sketches (drawn with the book inverted) were made as Turner descended the eastern slope of Ben Arthur, having climbed the mountain to see the view over Loch Long and Loch Lomond (see folio 58 verso; D26551 for further details). In the top sketch, the profile of Ben Lomond is seen in the distance above trees and shrubs in the foreground, and to the right of a steep mountain slope or rock. This may be the side of one of the Narnain Boulders, which Turner would have passed as he descended the path between Ben Arthur and Beinn Narnain. Loch Long is in the middle distance. Ben Lomond is seen again in the sketch at the bottom of the page, but now from further down the mountain. A jagged vertical line at the centre of the sketch may be a plume of steam from the funnel of a steamboat, or a column of smoke from a fire.
Other views from Ben Arthur were sketched on folios 33 and 58 verso–61 (D26500, D26552–D26556).

Thomas Ardill
November 2009

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Ben Lomond From Ben Arthur 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-ben-lomond-from-ben-arthur-r1134988, accessed 25 April 2024.