Joseph Mallord William Turner

Broadford Bay, Scalpay and Longay from the East; and Scalpay

1831

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Stirling and the West Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 201 × 125 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D26604
Turner Bequest CCLXX 85 a

Catalogue entry

These sketches were made around Broadford Bay on the Isle of Skye. At the centre of the page the third sketch down is inscribed ‘Sound of Scalpa’, and as David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have pointed out, ‘shows the narrow waterway between wooded slopes of the Isle of Scalpay and the Skye Mainland.’1 The view was made from just west of Broadford Bay, perhaps from the bay called Camas na Sgianadin.

Above this is the continuation of a sketch on folio 86 (D26605) of Broadford Bay with the island of Scalpay to the right, and the island of Longay to the right of that. At the top of the page are a horizontal mass of scribbles that must represent clouds. A sketch of Broadford Bay on folio 12 (D26458) also includes rain and clouds. See folio 12 for references to further sketches made at Broadford Bay.

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner on the Isle of Skye 1831’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [folios 21–2].

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