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 > Edinburgh, 1818, Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of the Forth 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of the Forth’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 57 Recto:
Distant View of the Forth 1818
D13560
Turner Bequest CLXVI 57
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 90 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXVI 57’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the book turned to the left Turner has made two views of distant landscapes. The top sketch shows a view of a ruin near the Firth of Forth looking towards an island, perhaps Inchkeith. The lower sketch shows a building and a tower in a hilly landscape. Although both are too distant to make identification certain they could be Linlithgow Palace and Church from the east with the Bathgate Hills beyond, a view that Turner made on folio 32 verso (D13512) from closer to. The two suggested views could both have been made from somewhere near Hopetoun House where Turner made other views of the landscape and views across the Firth of Forth (see folios 40, 42 verso–44; D13527, D13532–D13535).
Verso:
Blank, though there is a slight imprint from folio 58 (D13561).

Thomas Ardill
January 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Distant View of the Forth 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2008, 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-distant-view-of-the-forth-r1132105, accessed 18 September 2024.