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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Scotch Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A River Valley with Wooded Hills and Mountains: ?The River Garry near Blair Atholl 1801

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A River Valley with Wooded Hills and Mountains: ?The River Garry near Blair Atholl’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 116 Recto:
A River Valley with Wooded Hills and Mountains: ?The River Garry near Blair Atholl 1801
D03136
Turner Bequest LVI 114
Pencil on white wove paper, 184 x 114 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Blair Athol’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘114’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LVI – 114’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a continuation of the drawing on folio 115 verso opposite (D03135; Turner Bequest LVI 113). A possible identification of the subject is the River Tay above Dunkeld and Craigie Barns, a rock face that rises sheer out of woods above the river to the west of the town. The sketch on the verso (D03137; Turner Bequest LVI 114a), is inscribed ‘Dunkeld’, which would tend to support that identification; it is apparently the extension of a drawing on another opening, ostensibly folios 117 verso–118 recto (D03139–D03140; Turner Bequest LVI 115a–116), also inscribed ‘Dunkeld’.
However, those two sketches do not link up very convincingly, and the annotation may refer to the double-page view of Dunkeld which appears several pages later, on folios 127 verso–128 recto (D03159–D03160; Turner Bequest LVI 125a–126), with which a link is more plausible. Furthermore, the inscription on the present drawing places the location further north, on the Garry rather than the Tay. Turner used the study as the basis for a ‘Scottish Pencil’ composition, Tate D03408 (Turner Bequest LVIII 29).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A River Valley with Wooded Hills and Mountains: ?The River Garry near Blair Atholl 1801 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-river-valley-with-wooded-hills-and-mountains-the-river-r1179331, accessed 26 April 2024.