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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Abbotsford Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Continuation of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill; and Other Landscape Sketches 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Continuation of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill; and Other Landscape Sketches’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
Continuation of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill; and Other Landscape Sketches 1831
D25950
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 13
Pencil on off-white wove writing paper, 113 x 185 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ?‘Mackiln Castle’ bottom left
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘13’ top right and ‘271’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVII – 13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At the right of the page is part of a sketch of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill to the south of the city. Turner began the sketch on folio 7 verso and 8, but running out of space to finish Arthur’s Seat at the right of the picture, he peeled back several pages of the sketchbook to continue the drawing on folio 11. He then peeled back several more pages to complete the drawing at the right of the present page. This part of the sketch therefore shows the eastern slopes of Arthur’s Seat with the town of Duddingston at its foot.
There are three further sketches at the left of this page, but it is not certain what they depict. At the top left are two sketches of rocks or hills with a square building. This may be the same structure that is depicted in the sketch beneath which is inscribed with the name of a castle. Finberg has suggested ‘Mackiln Castle’,1 but there are no castles of that name, and no alternative identification has been suggested.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.857.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Continuation of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill; and Other Landscape Sketches 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-continuation-of-edinburgh-from-blackford-hill-and-other-r1134320, accessed 26 April 2024.