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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Bass Rock and Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Nelson's Monument, Calton Hill 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Nelson's Monument, Calton Hill’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Recto:
Nelson’s Monument, Calton Hill 1818
D13429
Turner Bequest CLXV 59
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXV 59’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
On this page Turner depicts some of the newer building projects on Calton Hill that now form two of Edinburgh’s most famous landmarks. Nelson’s Monument was built between 1807 and 1815 to celebrate the hero’s victory at Trafalgar. The architect Robert Burn designed the tower to look like a telescope with its narrowing cylindrical sections, and these are clearly shown in Turner’s drawing, as is the castellated building at the base of the tower designed by Thomas Bonnar. The building to the right, the City Observatory, was commissioned by the Edinburgh Astronomical Institution and built in early 1818 from William Henry Playfair’s design. A faint Edinburgh Castle is seen in the distance.
At the top left of the page is a separate drawing of what looks like the trunk of a tree, though it could be a thumbnail sketch of a landscape drawn with the book turned to the right.

Thomas Ardill
November 2007

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Nelson’s Monument, Calton Hill 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2007, 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-nelsons-monument-calton-hill-r1131975, accessed 20 September 2024.