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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tobermory from the Sound of Mull 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tobermory from the Sound of Mull’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Recto:
Tobermory from the Sound of Mull 1831
D26833
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 48
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ?‘is Calv’ upper centre
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘48’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXIII 48’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketches on this page begin a sequence that record Turner’s return from Tobermory to Oban after visiting the Isle of Staffa. The sequence continues on folios 48 verso–57 verso (D26834–D26852).
These sketches have been identified as views of the coast around Tobermory on Mull.1 The top sketch carries an inscription that David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan read as ‘Coll’, though it could equally say ‘Is Calv’. In any case the authors suggest that this denotes Calve Island, which must be the dark shape at the left, with the hill to the north of Tobermory to the right. The view would therefore be from the Sound of Mull to the east of Tobermory. The second sketch looks south-west up the bay to the hill above the harbour with Drumfin House (see also folio 47 verso; D26832). For further sketches of Tobermory, see folio 1 verso (D26749).

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner on Mull and Staffa’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [folios 12, 20].

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Tobermory from the Sound of Mull 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-tobermory-from-the-sound-of-mull-r1135191, accessed 16 April 2024.