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 of East Tarbert, Kintyre; Port Askaig, Islay; and Knock Castle, Skye 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of East Tarbert, Kintyre; Port Askaig, Islay; and Knock Castle, Skye’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 76 Verso:
Sketches of East Tarbert, Kintyre; Port Askaig, Islay; and Knock Castle, Skye 1831
D26587
Turner Bequest CCLXX 76a
Pencil on white wove paper, 201 x 125 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Port Askaig’ centre, ‘Knock’ bottom left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains five sketches. Two of these (the second and fourth down) are continued from folio 77 (D26588) and the others were made on three separate occasions.
At the top of the page is East Loch Tarbert in Kintyre, as seen from the town to the north of the loch. Looking across the loch Turner shows Tarbert Castle on the hillside at the south. Below the hill is a pier with a steamboat moored alongside. The same boat is shown on folio 29 verso (D26493). For more information on the castle see folio 83 (D26599).
The third sketch down, inscribed ‘Port Askaig’, is of another harbour, this time on the island of Islay (see folio 37 verso; D26509). This view is from the hills above the port to the south-west. From here we look down on the port and across the Sound of Islay to the island of Jura with the Paps of Jura (see folio 74; D26582 for further views of the Paps). There is a very similar view on folio 79 verso (D26593).
At the bottom of the page is a sketch, made with the book inverted and continued on folio 77, inscribed ‘Knock’, and therefore presumably referring to Knock Castle on Skye. The castle is not itself seen in this view, but is depicted in a sketch on folio 78 (D26289).

Thomas Ardill
June 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches of East Tarbert, Kintyre; Port Askaig, Islay; and Knock Castle, Skye 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-sketches-of-east-tarbert-kintyre-port-askaig-islay-and-knock-r1135021, accessed 24 April 2024.