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 The Foot of Ben Venue from the East End of Loch Katrine 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Foot of Ben Venue from the East End of Loch Katrine’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Recto:
The Foot of Ben Venue from the East End of Loch Katrine 1831
D26490
Turner Bequest CCLXX 28
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘B Venue’ top right, ‘?Croil Back’ or [or ?‘Coille Beg’] lower left
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘28’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 28’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made this sketch of the rocky foot of Ben Venue from the east end of Loch Katrine. The mountain’s summit can be seen at the top right of the sketch, inscribed ‘B Venue’. The inscription at the lower left of the page is illegible, though David Wallace-Hadrill has suggested that it may say ‘?Croil Back’ or ‘Coille Beg’.1 In either case it seems to be an attempt by Turner to make a phonetic transcription of a Gaelic place name. The place depicted is near to Coir-nan-Uriskin, or Goblin’s Cave, which is depicted on folio 32 (D26498) where there is another transcription.
For more information about Turner’s visit to Loch Katrine and references to further sketches of it, see folio 47 (D26528).

Thomas Ardill
October 2009

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, Turner Round the Clyde and In Islay – 1831’, 1991, Tate catalogue files, folio2.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘The Foot of Ben Venue from the East End of Loch Katrine 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-the-foot-of-ben-venue-from-the-east-end-of-loch-katrine-r1134924, accessed 25 April 2024.