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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Oban from Pulpit Hill 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Oban from Pulpit Hill’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 79 Verso:
Oban from Pulpit Hill 1831
D26897
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 79a
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view has been identified as Oban Bay as seen from Pulpit Hill to the south-west of the town.1 Part of the steep hill is shown in the foreground at the left, with the rooftops of Oban to the right, and sailing and steamboats in the bay to the left. Turner took steamboats from Oban to explore the islands of Skye, Mull and Staffa, and to travel to Inverness. Beyond the bay, perched on the edge of a cliffy headland, is Dunollie Castle, which Turner made a number of studies of in this sketchbook (see folio 95 for details; D26928).
Another sketch of Oban on folio 98 verso (D26933; CCLXXIII 97a) may have also been made from Pulpit Hill or nearby. Turner made further sketches of Oban from the south on folios 59 verso, 60, 60 verso, 78 and 78 verso (D26857, D26858, D26859, D26894, D26895).

Thomas Ardill
February 2010

1
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1991, p.29.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Oban from Pulpit Hill 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-oban-from-pulpit-hill-r1135254, accessed 23 April 2024.