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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Loch Ard Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ledard Burn, or Bracklinn Falls 1834

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ledard Burn, or Bracklinn Falls’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Verso:
Ledard Burn, or Bracklinn Falls 1834
D26736
Turner Bequest CCLXXII 37
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 182 x 117 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘37’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXII 37’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan have suggested that the sketch of a stream in a mountain glen on this page could depict Ledard Burn, which runs down the southern slope of Ben Venue to Loch Ard.1 Another sketch of the burn has been identified on folio 2 verso (D26673; CCLXXII 4), and on the reverse of this page are sketches of Loch Ard.
At the bottom left of the sketch are two figures who act as staffage, to suggest human interaction with the landscape and provide the scene with a sense of scale. Turner included almost identical figures in two sketches of the Bracklinn Falls near Callander: folios 10 and 21 (D26735, D26739; CCLXXII 36a, 38a). The reoccurrence of these figures suggests that either Turner invented them to use as a compositional devise in different circumstances, or that this is in fact another view of Bracklinn Falls.

Thomas Ardill
November 2010

1
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1990, Vol.10 No.2, p.27.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Ledard Burn, or Bracklinn Falls 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-ledard-burn-or-bracklinn-falls-r1136410, accessed 25 April 2024.