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

The four sketches on this page were made, as Turner’s inscription tells us, at ‘Port Ari[saig]’ on Loch nan Ceall.1 The sketch at the top of the page, labelled ‘1’, and the third down, labelled ‘3’ twice, both look north-west from near the mouth of the loch towards Skye and the Cuillin Mountains. In the foreground are the islands and crags at the mouth of the loch, including one that the artist shaded heavily and labelled ‘I’ or ‘1’ in both sketches. David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have suggested that ‘I’ may have been Turner’s attempt to transliterate the name of the island off the mouth of the loch called Eilean Eighe, though they acknowledge that the island looks nothing like the rocks that he has drawn.2 It is perhaps more likely, therefore, that Turner simply made a little mark next to the island in both sketches to remind him that it was the same one.

The second sketch (‘2’) consists of a row of diagonal scribbles that probably represent the craggy coast around the mouth of Loch nan Ceall. The final sketch (‘4’) may show the view east from the mouth of the loch, looking towards Arisaig and the mountains of South Mora behind. There are further sketches from around Arisaig on folios 5 and 6 verso (D26963, D26965) and perhaps on folio 5 verso (D41022).