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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mull from Barr-nam-boc Bay, Kerrera 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 62 Recto:
Mull from Barr-nam-boc Bay, Kerrera 1831
D26862
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 62
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘62’ bottom right descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXIII 62’ bottom left descending vertically’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made three sketches from Barr-nam-boc Bay at the west of the Isle of Kerrera (folios 62–63; D26862–D26864). The bay was then the main terminus for the ferry to Mull, and although Turner could have crossed over to Mull from here, David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan argue that he returned to Oban and set off from there.1
The current sketch, previously unidentified, shows the view in the opposite direction to the sketch on the reverse of this page: folio 62 verso, inscribed ‘Barnabouk’. The same houses are present in the foreground with the path leading to Gylen Castle (folios 63 verso–75 verso; D26865–D26889), and the shoulder of Torbhain Mòr. Across the Firth of Lorn is the Isle of Mull, with the mountains of Creach Beinn at the left and Sgùrr Dearg and Dun da Ghaoithe to the right.

Thomas Ardill
February 2010

1
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1991, p.20, see the route marked on the map.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Mull from Barr-nam-boc Bay, Kerrera 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-mull-from-barr-nam-boc-bay-kerrera-r1135219, accessed 19 September 2024.