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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ben Nevis from the Caledonian Canal to the West 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ben Nevis from the Caledonian Canal to the West’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Ben Nevis from the Caledonian Canal to the West 1831
D26968
Turner Bequest CCLXXVI 3
Pencil on off-white laid writing paper, 150 x 184 mm irregular
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Glen’ centre, ‘Nevis’ lower centre
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘3’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXVI 3’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The three sketches on this page have been identified as views of Ben Nevis from the Caledonian Canal just north of Corpach near Fort William.1 The canal took Turner from Loch Linnhe to Inverness. The sketches on this page were made shortly after Turner’s boat had reached the top of the series of locks near Corpach known as Neptune’s Staircase (folio 2; D26967), at the southern end of the canal.
At the top, drawn parallel with the fore-edge of the page, Turner made a view looking south towards Corpach with the canal engine house. In the distance are the foothills of Ben Nevis and Aonach Mòr. For the second sketch he turned to the south-east to look towards ‘Glen’ Nevis with the rooftops of Fort William beneath. The sketch at the bottom of the page is inscribed ‘Nevis’ and looks towards Ben Nevis to the east, although the summit of the mountain is obscured by cloud or mist. There are further sketches of the mountain on folios 2 and 4 (D26969).
1
Identifications by David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner’s 1831 Sketchbook T.B. CCLXXVI Fort Augustus’, [circa 1992–3], Tate catalogue files, [unpaginated].
Verso:
Blank

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Ben Nevis from the Caledonian Canal to the West 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-ben-nevis-from-the-caledonian-canal-to-the-west-r1135333, accessed 23 April 2024.