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 Jura from Islay 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Jura from Islay’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 74 Recto:
Jura from Islay 1831
D26582
Turner Bequest CCLXX 74
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘74’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXX – 74’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned to the left, this page contains two sketches of the island of Jura as seen from Islay to the west. Jura is recognisable in the top sketch by the distinctive peaks of the conical-shaped mountains called the Paps, which can be seen from many places of Islay and around the coast of Jura. While the Paps consist of three peaks, only two of them can be seen in this sketch: Beinn an Òir (left) and Beinn a’ Chaolais (right), with the third, Beinn Shiantaidh, hidden behind the other two.
The second sketch shows a similar view of Jura, but this time with more of Islay visible in the foreground (as in a sketch on folio 73 verso; D26581). David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have tentatively suggested that this view may be from Mulreesh, half a mile north of Loch Finlaggan, with the buildings in the foreground being the lead mine engine-house there.1
Other views of Jura with the Paps from Islay include folios 34 verso, 39 verso, 52 and 72 (D26503, D26513, D26538, D26578).

Thomas Ardill
January 2010

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner Round the Clyde and Islay – 1831’, 1991, Tate catalogue files, ‘checklist’ folio 5.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Jura from Islay 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-jura-from-islay-r1135016, accessed 19 September 2024.