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 Six Sketches of Tarbert Castle, Kintyre; and a Sketch of Knock Castle, Skye 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Six Sketches of Tarbert Castle, Kintyre; and a Sketch of Knock Castle, Skye’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 83 Recto:
Six Sketches of Tarbert Castle, Kintyre; and a Sketch of Knock Castle, Skye 1831
D26599
Turner Bequest CCLXX 83
Pencil on white wove paper, 201 x 125 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Knock’ bottom inverted
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘83’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 83’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Having landed at East Tarbert on the Kintyre peninsula (see folio 88 verso; D26610) Turner made numerous sketches of East Loch Tarbert, paying particular attention to Tarbert Castle. In order to make the six sketches of the castle on this page, Turner climbed up the hill to the south of the loch where the ruins of the castle stand.
At the top of the page are three sketches of different elevations of the castle that record its crumbling architecture, but ignore its setting. These are, from left to right, the north corner, the north-west side, and the north east side. These sketches demonstrate that the structure has disintegrated still further since Turner’s day, the lower structure at the front of the castle no longer being extant.
Beneath the three elevations are three sketches that show the castle within its landscape setting. The uppermost is a view from the west and includes the mouth of East Loch Tarbert in the background to the left. Beneath this is a view of the road below the castle to the east, including part of the town of Tarbert at the right. The bottommost of the castle sketches was made from the hill to the east, and shows the castle on a slope with East Loch Tarbert beyond to the right.
At the bottom of the page, drawn with the sketchbook inverted, is a sketch inscribed ‘Knock’. This is Castle Camus, also known as Knock Castle, at the south of the Isle of Skye. The view is probably from the south-west, made as Turner approached the castle from Ardvasar where he had recently landed. For further views of the castle see folio 78 (D26590).1

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner on the Isle of Skye 1831’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [folio 12].

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Six Sketches of Tarbert Castle, Kintyre; and a Sketch of Knock Castle, Skye 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2010, 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-six-sketches-of-tarbert-castle-kintyre-and-a-sketch-of-knock-r1135033, accessed 20 April 2024.