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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Loch Long Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of Glen Goil 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of Glen Goil’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Recto:
Sketches of Glen Goil 1831
D26635
Turner Bequest CCLXXI 9
Pencil on off-white laid writing paper, 158 x 101 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Ben You Glen Goil’ bottom inverted
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘9’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXI – 9’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inverted inscription at the foot of this page, which Finberg read as ‘Glen Coil’,1 in fact reads ‘Glen Goil’. This makes it likely that the five sketches on this page are views of the mountainous shores of Loch Goil and Glen Goil to the north, made during Turner’s journey on the St Catherine’s steamboat on his tour of Lochs Long, Goil and Fyne (see the introduction to this sketchbook for details). The other half of the inscription reads ‘Ben You’, but there is no mountain of that name that can be linked to it. The inscription must therefore be either a phonetic attempt at a word or a mishearing. The mountain is perhaps one of those that can be seen at the head of Loch Goil.
The other sketches may look north up the loch, as the mountain profile resembles that of Cruach nam Miseag as seen from around Carrick Castle (see Tate D26470; Turner Bequest CCLXX 18).

Thomas Ardill
July 2010

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.872.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches of Glen Goil 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-sketches-of-glen-goil-r1135072, accessed 25 April 2024.