Joseph Mallord William Turner Four Sketches of Doune Castle 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Recto:
Four Sketches of Doune Castle 1834
D26374
Turner Bequest CCLXIX 61
Turner Bequest CCLXIX 61
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Dark’ lower centre-left
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘61’ top left running vertically and ‘340’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIX 61’ top right running vertically
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Dark’ lower centre-left
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘61’ top left running vertically and ‘340’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIX 61’ top right running vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.866, CCLXIX 61, as ‘Ruined castle on hill.’.
1936
Henry J. Crawford, Turner’s Sketches and Drawings of Stirling and Neighbourhood with Some Notes on the Artist’s Scottish Tours also a Note on John Ruskin and Stirling, Stirling 1936, p.29.
1990
Dr David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner’s Sketches North of Stirling’, Turner Studies: His Art and Epoch 1775 – 1851, Vol.10 No.1, Summer 1990, p.12.
1990
Dr David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner North of Stirling in 1831; a checklist (2)’, Turner Studies: His Art and Epoch 1775–1851, Vol.10 No.2, Winter 1990, p.29.
With the sketchbook turned to the left Turner has used this page for four sketches of Doune Castle. The top three sketches were made from the south-east and include Ardoch Burn in the foreground. David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have commented that Turner has paid ‘less attention to the building than to the composition of the heavily-treed slopes at its foot’.1 While it is true that the burn, its banks and the trees and foliage all interested Turner a great deal in these sketches, and that, as a group, they represent variations on a composition, Turner has recorded the architecture of the castle with a good deal of care, even though it was not necessary for him to add much detail here. The word ‘Dark’ is inscribed on the water of the third sketch.
The sketch at the bottom of the page shows the castle again, though this time with just a few vertical lines that make it difficult to be certain of the viewpoint. In the foreground, however, is a building with a mill wheel. The nearest mill to the castle was the Mill of Doune, which stands on the bank of Ardoch Burn to the north-east of the castle. This view may therefore be from the north-east. There are further sketches of the mill on folio 62 (D26376).
For further information and a full list of Turner’s sketches of the castle, see folio 52 verso (D26358).
Thomas Ardill
November 2010
How to cite
Thomas Ardill, ‘Four Sketches of Doune Castle 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www