Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Scots Pines, with a Valley and Loch beyond and a Graveyard in the Foreground 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Three Scots Pines, with a Valley and Loch beyond and a Graveyard in the Foreground 1801
D03435
Turner Bequest LVIII 56
Turner Bequest LVIII 56
Pencil and gouache on white wove paper prepared with a grey–buff wash, 296 x 434 mm
Blind–stamped with Turner Bequest monogram
Stamped in black ‘LVIII – 56’ bottom right below right of centre
Blind–stamped with Turner Bequest monogram
Stamped in black ‘LVIII – 56’ bottom right below right of centre
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, p.369.
1801
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.159, LVIII 56, as ‘Study of Scotch fir. ... (Cf. sketch on pp. 1a–2, “Tummel Bridge” Sketch Book (LVII, T.B.). This is therefore not a study from nature as described by Mr. Ruskin.)’, c.1801.
1982
Andrew Wilton, ‘Turner in Scotland: The Early Tours’, in Francina Irwin, Wilton, Gerald Finley and others, Turner in Scotland, exhibition catalogue, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum 1982, pp.17–18.
Technique and condition
This picture was executed on a white, wove paper, prepared with a pale greyish buff wash. The sheet was made with a double-faced mould by William Balston and the Hollingworth Brothers at Turkey Mill, Boxley, Maidstone, Kent. It has no watermark.1
The composition was begun with light graphite pencil sketching of the mountain tops. Graphite pencil was utilised as the only ‘colourant’, in the form of shading applied rapidly with Turner’s right hand, to create the vegetation in the foreground, to give form to the nearer tree trunks and their leafy branches, and to give form and detail to the more distant hills. A single drawing material is very practical, in terms of carrying and using it outdoors.
This sketch has in the past been covered by a window mount, and exposed to light for a considerable period. This has faded the greyish buff overall wash, and has also darkened the paper to a pale brown.
The artist and diarist Joseph Farington noted in 1802 that Turner ‘showed me his sketches made in Scotland. Those made with black lead pencil on white paper tinted with Indian ink and Tobacco water and touched with liquid white of his own preparing’. This description can be applied here: the greyish buff wash could have been made with Indian ink combined with a brown material, since Indian ink by itself makes a very neutral grey wash of a cooler tone than that used here. Brown fading out of the mixture and yellowing paper would combine to give the background colour seen here, which would be warmer now than when newly painted. ‘Black lead pencil’ is in effect the graphite pencil familiar today, though Turner’s drawing material have been used in a holder that gripped a rod or fragment of material and permitted use right down to the end of the stump. This particular sketch has neither washes of tobacco water nor white gouache, unlike others in the group.
Helen Evans
October 2008
Revised by Joyce Townsend
February 2011
How to cite
Helen Evans, 'Technique and Condition', October 2008, revised by Joyce Townsend, February 2011, in Andrew Wilton, ‘Three Scots Pines, with a Valley and Loch beyond and a Graveyard in the Foreground 1801 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://wwwAs noted by Finberg, a rough drawing of this subject is in the 1801 Tummel Bridge sketchbook (Tate D03278–D03279; Turner Bequest LVII 1a–2).1 Its position at the front of that book suggests that this loch is the first that Turner encountered, Lomond. The subject may be a view from near the southern end of Loch Lomond looking north.
Verso:
Blank
Andrew Wilton
May 2013
How to cite
Andrew Wilton, ‘Three Scots Pines, with a Valley and Loch beyond and a Graveyard in the Foreground 1801 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