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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Fort George from Fort Rose, Moray Firth 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Verso:
Fort George from Fort Rose, Moray Firth 1831
D27066
Turner Bequest CCLXXVII 12a
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 104 x 163 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Fort George, a mid-eighteenth-century fortress on a promontory in the Moray Firth, eleven miles north-east of Inverness, is recognisable in this sketch by the vertical lines dividing the narrow horizontal shape. The fort is built on a star plan, and the vertical lines are the corners of its surrounding wall. It is seen here from Fort Rose on the Black Isle, across the Moray Firth. There is a clearer sketch of the same view on folio 29 (D27087) and further sketches from around this point on folios 13, 29 verso, 31 verso, 32, 32 verso and 62; (D27067, D27088, D27091, D27092, D27093, D27126). There are also sketches of Fort George on folios 6 and 10 (D27054, D27062).
Turner crossed over to North Kessock on the Black Isle from Inverness. He then seems to have completed a circular route to Novar House at Evanton via Dingwall on the way out, and Fort Rose on the way back (or perhaps vice versa), before crossing back to Inverness to begin his journey to Elgin.

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Fort George from Fort Rose, Moray Firth 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2010, 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-fort-george-from-fort-rose-moray-firth-r1135432, accessed 29 March 2024.