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

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have suggested identifications for the three sketches on this page. With the sketchbook turned so that the fore-edge is at the top, across the top half of the page is a sketch that the authors compare to the sketch of Loch Goil on folio 1 verso (D26620).1 If their identification is correct, then the view is north from around Lochgoilhead and includes the mountain, Ben Donich, at the right.

The other two sketches on the page are likely to be of Loch Katrine. At the head of the page by the gutter, with the book turned in the conventional orientation, is a sketch inscribed ‘Loch K’. As Wallace-Hadrill has observed, the sketch ‘doesn’t look right!’2 In fact, the topography is more reminiscent of the Trossachs as seen from the west end of Loch Achray, with Ben Venue on the left (see Tate D26541; Turner Bequest CCLXX 53a) and Ben A’an on the right (Tate D26542; Turner Bequest CCLXX 54). Turner’s inscription may therefore note that the view is looking in the direction of Loch Katrine, rather than actually being of it.

Along the page gutter, with the gutter at the top, is another sketch of Loch Katrine, this time from the water looking east along the loch with Ben Venue at the right. There are further views of Loch Katrine on folios 11, 11 verso and 14 (D26639, D26640, D26645). For more information on Turner’s visit to Loch Katrine, and full references of the sketches he made of it, see Tate D26528 (Turner Bequest CCLXX 47).