J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This page contains sketches made while Turner was travelling between Loch Fyne and Loch Long via Glen Kinglas, the Rest and be thankful road, and Glen Croe (see Tour of Scotland for Scott’s Poetical Works Tour Introduction).1 The first sketch to be made was of Dunderave Castle at the upper centre of the page. Turner had sketched the castle in 1801 (Tate D03309; Turner Bequest LVII 17) and shown it peeping through the trees in his watercolour, Loch Fyne 1815 (British Museum).2 He now returned to the subject with this sketch from the road along the shore of Loch Fyne to the west. The castle is drawn fairly matter-of-factly, and with a great deal of economy. The artist also left the road briefly, though he did not have to move far from it to make a sketch looking north-east on folio 8 verso (D26634). He also made a quick, diagrammatic sketch on folio 4 (D26625). (For further sketches of Loch Fyne, see Tate D26473; Turner Bequest CCLXX 19a).

The sketch at the bottom of the page, made with the book inverted from the other sketches, though not identifiably with any great degree of certainty, may help to fill in the gap between Dunderave Castle and Rest and be thankful. David Wallace-Hadrill has suggested several possibilities: ‘Kinglass House? Glenfyne Lodge? Not Rosneath [castle]?’. Of these, what Wallace-Hadrill refers to as Kinglass House, actually Ardkinglas House, is the most plausible considering Turner’s route. The house stands just south of Cairndow on the western shore of Loch Fyne, and Turner would have passed close by on his route from Loch Fyne to Loch Long by way of Glen Kinglas and Glen Croe. The house was noted by picturesque tourists such as Mrs Murray,3 and Turner may have known of it, or had it pointed out to him. The sketch is very slight and apparently unfinished, and does not closely match a contemporary engraving of the building.4 However, the house was wrecked by fire in 1831, so this could show the burnt-out shell. David Sumsion of Ardkinglas House has also confirmed that the setting is a close match for the old house as seen from the south-west with Glen Kinglas behind and either Beinn Ime or Beinn Chorranach in the distance;5 a match confirmed by photographs of the setting.

The final two sketches, at the top and lower centre of the page, were presumably made on the same day and about ten miles away from Loch Fyne. They are of the Ben Arthur (also known as The Cobbler), a mountain that Turner climbed before descending to Loch Long. The top sketch, inscribed ‘Ben Arthur’, looks up to the craggy mountain peak from Glen Croe, and the second sketch shows the mountain from a similar viewpoint. There is a similar profile sketch of the summit on folio 4 (D26625), and there are two further sketches in the Stirling and the West sketchbook, this time made from Arrochar at the east of Loch Long, (Tate D26557–D26558; Turner Bequest CCLXX 61a–62). Turner also climbed the mountain and made views from the summit (see Tate D26500; Turner Bequest CCLXX 33 for references).