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 Katrine with Ellen's Isle and Ben A'an 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Loch Katrine with Ellen's Isle and Ben A'an’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Verso:
Loch Katrine with Ellen’s Isle and Ben A’an 1831
D26499
Turner Bequest CCLXX 32a
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Nol of Glen Finglas’ top
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch of a loch bordered by mountains is likely to be Loch Katrine at the western end of the Trossachs. The mountain at the far end of the loch is probably Ben A’an as seen from the slopes of Ben Venue. The island is Eilean Molach (or Ellen’s Isle), the setting of Sir Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake, an edition of which was illustrated with an engraving after Turner’s watercolour Loch Katrine circa 1832 (British Museum).1 There are numerous sketches of Loch Katrine in this sketchbook, for references see folio 47 (D26528).
At the top of the page Turner inscribed a note that appears to read ‘Nol of Glen Finglas’. Glen Finglas lies a few miles to the east of Loch Katrine in the direction that this view is facing. The reference therefore applies to the proximity of the glen, rather than its depiction.

Thomas Ardill
June 2010

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.1084 no.1084.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Loch Katrine with Ellen’s Isle and Ben A’an 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, 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-katrine-with-ellens-isle-and-ben-aan-r1134933, accessed 24 April 2024.