Joseph Mallord William Turner

Lauriston Castle and the Firth of Forth

1818

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Not on display

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Edinburgh, 1818, Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 90 × 112 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D13568
Turner Bequest CLXVI 61 a

Catalogue entry

Over two pages Turner has sketched a view north across the Firth of Forth towards Fife, with Lauriston Castle on the left. The castle was built in the 1590s as a tower house, and Turner’s drawing shows it as it was before its extension by William Burn in the 1820s for the then owner Thomas Allen. Behind the castle about half a mile to the north is the Firth of Forth with the north bank at Fife. Crammond Island can be seen on this page a mile and a half to the north, and over on folio 62 (D13569) is Inchkeith nearly seven miles to the north-east.
On folio 62, just above Finberg’s stamp, drawn with the sketchbook inverted, is a tiny sketch of a building that may be Roslin Chapel.

Thomas Ardill
January 2008

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