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 The Dome of St George's, Edinburgh; and Sketches of Other Buildings 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Dome of St George's, Edinburgh; and Sketches of Other Buildings’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 60 Verso:
The Dome of St George’s, Edinburgh; and Sketches of Other Buildings 1818
D13566
Turner Bequest CLXVI 60a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 90 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ?‘Light Bass’ bottom left; ?‘Gill’ top right inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rather than the ‘Old University of Edinburgh’ as Finberg suggests, the dome of which was not built until 1886, here is a study made with the page turned to the right of the dome of St George’s Church in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh’s New Town district, built just four years before Turner saw it. The building is now known as the West Register House, and is home to part of the collection of the National Archives of Scotland.
The dome appears several times in the sketchbook, and is prominent in a view of the New Town from Stockbridge (folio 64; D13573). With the sketchbook turned to the left are several sketches of parts of buildings. At the right of the page (in is usual orientation) is the continuation of a sketch of several buildings from folio 61 (D13567).

Thomas Ardill
January 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘The Dome of St George’s, Edinburgh; and Sketches of Other Buildings 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-the-dome-of-st-georges-edinburgh-and-sketches-of-other-r1132111, accessed 25 April 2024.