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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Loch Long Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of the Firth of Forth, With Rosyth and Blackness Castles 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of the Firth of Forth, With Rosyth and Blackness Castles’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 24 Verso:
Sketches of the Firth of Forth, With Rosyth and Blackness Castles 1831
D26666
Turner Bequest CCLXXI 24a
Pencil on off-white laid writing paper, 101 x 158 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Blackness’
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXI – 24a’ top left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These four or five sketches of the Firth of Forth are likely to be the first that Turner made from a boat travelling from Queensferry to Stirling (see inside back cover; D41132), as they contain the most easterly sites sketched during that journey.1 David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have read the inscription at the top of the page as ‘Blackness’, and therefore suggest that the sketch beneath is of Blackness Castle (near Bo’ness on the south side of the Forth), where Turner’s ferry was scheduled to make a stop.2 There is another view of the castle on folio 24 (D26665), which is identifiable from sketches that Turner made of it in 1818 (e.g. Tate D13517; Turner Bequest CLXVI 35).
With the sketchbook turned to the left is a slight sketch of another nearby castle, this time on the north bank near North Queensferry, Rosyth. Turner also sketched this castle on previous visits to the area in 1801 (Tate D02931; Turner Bequest LVI 5) and 1818 (Tate D13507; Turner Bequest CLXVI 30). It is recognisable by its square shape and broken gables.
The last two sketches, made with the book turned so that the gutter is at the top, are of the banks of the Forth. Both match the appearance of the area around Blackness, as seen from the water. Turner had made similar sketches in 1818 (Tate D13520; Turner Bequest CLXVI 36 a).

Thomas Ardill
October 2009

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan suggested in 1990 that the first sketches of the journey were made at North Queensferry in the Stirling and the West sketchbook (Tate D26436; Turner Bequest CCLXX 1); Dr David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner’s Sketches North of Stirling’, Turner Studies: His Art and Epoch 1775–1851, Summer 1990 vol.10 no.1, pp.15–16. See Inside back cover of this sketchbook (Tate D41132) for details.
2
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1990, p.15.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches of the Firth of Forth, With Rosyth and Blackness Castles 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2009, 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-the-firth-of-forth-with-rosyth-and-blackness-r1135103, accessed 02 April 2026.