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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > George IV’s visit to Edinburgh 1822 > King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Edinburgh Castle, Looking towards the Half Moon Battery, with the King's Lodgings on the Right 1822

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Edinburgh Castle, Looking towards the Half Moon Battery, with the King's Lodgings on the Right’ 1822
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 42 Verso:
Edinburgh Castle, Looking towards the Half Moon Battery, with the King’s Lodgings on the Right 1822
D17577
Turner Bequest CC 42a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Blindstamped with the Turner Bequest stamp bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch within the precincts of Edinburgh Castle, made with the sketchbook inverted, looks south with the Half Moon Battery wall to the left and the Royal Palace straight ahead. The drawing is similar, though more finished and from a slightly different angle, to a sketch on folio 41 verso (D17575). Between the cannon and the flag-pole are a few steps, and it was from here that Turner sketched the view north-east on folio 38 verso (D17569).
This sketch is one of several made in connection to the procession to the castle with the Regalia of Scotland on 22 August 1822 (see folio 36 verso; D17565). On that occasion the King stood on a spot close to where this sketch was made to wave to the crowds assembled below.

Thomas Ardill
September 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Edinburgh Castle, Looking towards the Half Moon Battery, with the King’s Lodgings on the Right 1822 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-edinburgh-castle-looking-towards-the-half-moon-battery-with-r1132918, accessed 25 April 2024.