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 Sketches from the Head of Loch Scavaig; and Broadford Bay 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches from the Head of Loch Scavaig; and Broadford Bay’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 70 Recto:
Sketches from the Head of Loch Scavaig; and Broadford Bay 1831
D26574
Turner Bequest CCLXX 70
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘L[...]’ upper-left, ‘Camasunary Bay’ upper centre, ‘Rum’ centre, ‘Longy’ | ‘Scalpa’ lower centre, ‘Papba’ bottom right, ‘Broadford Bay’ bottom centre
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘70’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 70’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
After Turner’s visit to Loch Coruisk (folio 39; D26512) to make sketches in preparation for his watercolour, Loch Coriskin 1831 (The National Gallery of Scotland),1 he took a boat from the Scavaig River to Camasunary Bay at the north-east corner of Loch Scavaig, where he stopped briefly to make sketches of the loch (folio 69; D26572).2 An inscription on the present page reads ‘Camasunary Bay’, which can be seen at the right of the top sketch, suggesting that the sketches on this page were made just after leaving the bay on the way back to Elgol.
The top sketch depicts a view looking back to the head of the loch with the Cuillin Mountains: Gars-bheinn at the left with rain falling on it, Sgurr na Stri at the centre with clouds above and the western slope of Bla Bheinn at the right, below which is the bay. At the far left is the island of Soay with the sun above and its reflection to the right, and to the right of that is an inscription that may refer to Loch nan Leachd, which lies between the two mountains.
The sketch at the centre of the page was made from the same location, but now looks south down Loch Scavaig to the island of ‘Rum’ with Soay (inscribed ‘Soa’) at the right and the Strathaird coast to the left. This sketch is labelled ‘4’ at the left, while the sketch above is numbered ‘3’ at the right. Sketches 1 and 2 may be those on folio 69 that show similar views and were made shortly before, though they are not numbered.
Further sketches of Loch Scavaig are on folios 37 verso, 38, 73 and 78 verso–79 (D26509, D26510, D26580, D26591–D26592).
At the bottom of the page is a sketch with an inscription telling us it is Broadford Bay. The view is from the east of the bay, and looks along the coast with a series of box-like houses at the left and the hill Beinn na Caillich beyond. To the left Turner has labelled the island of Scalpay (‘Scalpa’) and the smaller island of Pabay (‘Pabba’). Turner made a similar sketch on folio 12 (D26458); see folio 12 for references to further sketches of Broadford Bay.
The final sketch on the page sits between the sketches of Rum and Broadford, and could be associated with either, as it shows several islands that are too slight to identify with certainty. However, a note above the sketch could read ‘Longa’ (Longay), in which case it is a view of that island from Broadford Bay.3

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.429 no.1088.
2
Identified by David Wallace–Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner on the Isle of Skye 1831’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [folios 19–20].
3
Turner’s spelling of the islands Scalpay, Longay and Pabay as ‘Scalpa’, ‘Longa’ and ‘Pabba’ are consistent with how they are written in the Steamboat Companion, the book that is likely to have been his guide around the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. (James Lumsden and Son, Lumsden and Son’s Steamboat Companion; or Stranger’s Guide to the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland, Glasgow 1839, p.157).

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches from the Head of Loch Scavaig; and Broadford Bay 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-sketches-from-the-head-of-loch-scavaig-and-broadford-bay-r1135008, accessed 20 April 2024.