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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Esk, and Johnny Armstrong's Tower 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Esk, and Johnny Armstrong's Tower’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 62 Verso:
The River Esk, and Johnny Armstrong’s Tower 1831
D25884
Turner Bequest CCLXVI 62a
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 114 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketch of Johnny Armstrong’s Tower on this page, although slight, is perhaps closest to the composition that Turner adopted in his watercolour of the subject, Johnnie Armstrong’s Tower circa 1832 (Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati).1 In the sketch, made with the book turned to the right, the tower (also known as Hollows, or Gilnockie) is seen from Gilnockie Bridge to the south. On the west banks of the River Esk are the rooftops of the hamlet of Hollows, including most prominently Hollows Mill which also appears in the watercolour in the same position relative to the tower.
There is a similar view on folio 62 (D25883) and another view from the south on folio 61 (D25881), where there is further information on Turner’s visit to the tower. Turner’s final view of the tower is on folio 61 verso (D25882) and was made from the north.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.427 no.1073.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘The River Esk, and Johnny Armstrong’s Tower 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-the-river-esk-and-johnny-armstrongs-tower-r1134251, accessed 05 April 2026.