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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Loch Ard Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Road, with Figures; and Loch Ard 1834

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Road, with Figures; and Loch Ard’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 42 Verso:
Road, with Figures; and Loch Ard 1834
D26669
Turner Bequest CCLXXII 2
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 118 x 184 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Road to l head’ upper centre
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXII 2’ bottom right
Inscribed in brown ink by an unknown hand ‘25’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main sketch on this page depicts a landscape with mountains in the background and two figures at the bottom left of the page. Turner labelled the sketch, or perhaps the one above, ‘Road to l head’, perhaps referring to a road that leads to the head of a loch; this could be Loch Vennachar, Loch Achray, Loch Katrine or Loch Ard. Turner perhaps made this sketch having alighted from a coach at the head of a loch. The figures at the left may be some of his fellow passengers.
At the top left of the page is a boxed-off sketch of distant mountains, perhaps with a loch in the foreground. There is a sketch with a very similar composition on folio 3 verso of this sketchbook, (D26677; CCLXX 6) which has been identified as Loch Ard from the eastern side of the loch. At the right-hand-side of the page, with the sketchbook turned to the left, is a rather faint and rubbed sketch of a ruin on a mound or island, and a tree covered hill.
There is a blue mark at the top centre of the page, probably transferred from the modern book cover.

Thomas Ardill
February 2011

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Road, with Figures; and Loch Ard 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, 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-road-with-figures-and-loch-ard-r1136448, accessed 24 June 2025.