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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Loch Lomond from Luss or Tarbet 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Loch Lomond from Luss or Tarbet’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Verso:
Loch Lomond from Luss or Tarbet 1831
D26481
Turner Bequest CCLXX 23a
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although David Wallace-Hadrill has suggested that these two sketches of a loch-side village may be Tarbet or Inveruglas on Loch Lomond,1 the similarity of both to the sketch on the reverse of this page (folio 23; D26480) suggests that they also depict Luss, a village about halfway up the loch on the western shore. The most striking similarity is in the distinctive shape of the hill directly behind the village which matches Beinn Dubh fairly well. However, the pier at Tarbet has a similar appearance which makes this identification uncertain.
In either case, both sketches show the same village from along the bay to the south with houses by the waterside and a few boats. The top sketch was made from a little closer to the village.
For references to further sketches of Luss, see folio 23 (D26480), and for more information on Turner’s visit to Loch Lomond see Tour of Scotland for Scott’s Poetical Works 1831 Tour Introduction.

Thomas Ardill
October 2009

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner Round the Clyde and in Islay – 1831’, 1991, Tate catalogue files, folio 2.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Loch Lomond from Luss or Tarbet 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-loch-lomond-from-luss-or-tarbet-r1134915, accessed 26 April 2024.