J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Bass Rock and Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Hill 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Hill’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
A Hill 1818
D13398
Turner Bequest CLXV 43a
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this faint sketch the small hill on the right, seen from close up, is compared to the large hill in the background on the left. Although there is little detail in the drawing Turner has hinted at vegetation around the base of the foreground hill, and a serpentine line on the left may indicate the edge of a river or lake. Although the shape is too vague to be certain, the distant hill may show either Castle Rock from the south-west (as, for example, on the next page, folio 44; D13399; CLXV 44), or Arthur’s Seat from the north, both of which Turner was interested in sketching from the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Thomas Ardill
November 2007

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘A Hill 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2007, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-hill-r1131940, accessed 04 April 2026.