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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for a View of Edinburgh c.1801-4

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for a View of Edinburgh’ c.1801-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 83 Verso:
Study for a View of Edinburgh c.1801–4
D05066
Turner Bequest LXXXI 164
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 271 x 436 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Study for Edinburgh’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–164’ bottom right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this is perhaps a preliminary idea for the large watercolour of Edinburgh from Caulton–hill, exhibited in 1804 (Tate D03639; Turner Bequest LX H),1 or for the unexecuted ‘Edinburgh from above Duddingston’ (compare the watercolour in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin).2 However, a more likely interpretation is that it is a view of the city from St Anthony’s Chapel, on the slopes of Arthur’s Seat, based on sketches in the 1801 Edinburgh sketchbook (Tate D02816–D02819; Turner Bequest LV 4a–5, 5a–6).
Another study of the same view, similarly confined to the disposition of broad tonal masses, is on folio 84 verso (D05068; Turner Bequest LXXXI 166).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.339 no.348, pl.56.
2
Ibid., p.336 no.320, reproduced.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study for a View of Edinburgh c.1801–4 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-study-for-a-view-of-edinburgh-r1178270, accessed 16 April 2024.