Joseph Mallord William Turner

This view of Edinburgh Castle is one of six sketches of the castle in this book made on 1 October 1834 in the company of the publisher Robert Cadell, for whom Turner was preparing illustrations to works by Sir Walter Scott. Images of the castle by other artists have been used to illustrate a number of Scott’s novels, including Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Abbot.1 Cadell may therefore have asked Turner to prepare these sketches in preparation for an illustration to one of those novels, or as a subject with the potential to be put to use for an as yet unspecified illustration. The publisher noted in his diary that day: ‘at 11 Turner called [...] – 1/2 p[ast] 1 Turner and I left [...] to see Heriot’s Hospital then at High St to Castle Hill – from thence down by Grassmarket’.2 This sketch was made as Turner and Cadell were making their way between the High Street and the Grassmarket by way of Johnston Terrace.

Turner made his first sketch from Johnston Terrace in the Stirling and Edinburgh sketchbook (Tate D26404; Turner Bequest CCLXIX 76), having just emerged from the steps of Castle Wynd North that lead down from the top of the High Street. Having walked about a hundred metres further along the road, he made this sketch looking up the steep and rocky southern slope of castle rock to the central complex of buildings, including the Great Hall and the Royal Palace, with the Half Moon Battery and Esplanade to the right. A little sketch at the top centre-left of the page records the top of the octagonal tower of the Palace.

Further sketches of the castle are on folios 54–55, 64 and 79 (D26200–D26202, D26219, D26245); and in the Stirling and Edinburgh sketchbook: Tate D26334 (Turner Bequest CCLXIX 39a).