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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Stirling and the West Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Loch Long from Ben Arthur 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Loch Long from Ben Arthur’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
Loch Long from Ben Arthur 1831
D26552
Turner Bequest CCLXX 59
Pencil on white wove paper, 201 x 125 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Lake’ upper centre
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘59’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 59’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The three sketches on this page, made with the book inverted, are all likely to have been made from the slopes of Ben Arthur (The Cobbler). David Wallace Hadrill and Janet Carolan have suggested that the top sketch, which continues slightly onto folio 58 verso (D26551) and is inscribed ‘Lake’, shows Loch Long with Ben Lomond behind.1 Having arrived at Rest and be Thankful at the western end of Glen Croe, Turner made a sketch of the view east along the glen (58 verso) and then travelled along the glen, before ascending the eastern slopes of Ben Arthur and descending to Loch Long. These sketches were made from the slopes of the mountain, with the middle sketch being perhaps a view south down the length of Loch Long, and the bottom sketch being a view of Ben Lomond. Further sketches from Ben Arthur are on folios 33 and 59 verso–61 (D26500, D26553–D26556).
The top sketch continues slightly onto folio 58 verso.

Thomas Ardill
November 2009

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner Round the Clyde and in Islay – 1831’, 1991, Tate catalogue files, folio 4.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Loch Long from Ben Arthur 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2009, 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-loch-long-from-ben-arthur-r1134986, accessed 06 April 2026.