Joseph Mallord William Turner

Drawn with the sketchbook inverted, this view of Edinburgh from Calton’s Hill is an elaboration of the sketch on folio 77 verso (D26407). The view is from the top of Calton Hill at the south-east corner of the Royal Observatory. In the foreground at the right is the John Playfair Monument, and to the right at the centre of the page is the monument to Dugald Stewart. Beyond these lies the city of Edinburgh with the darkly shaded castle and North Bridge. Compared to folio 77 verso, Turner paid less attention in this sketch to the architecture of the two monuments, concentrating instead on light and shadow and colour in the sky which he noted was ‘all grey’ at he left and ‘v[ery] yellow’ to the right.

This sketch belongs to a series of views of Edinburgh from near the Stewart Monument; see folio 79 verso (D26411) for details.