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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Tobermory and the Sound of Mull 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Tobermory and the Sound of Mull’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Verso:
?Tobermory and the Sound of Mull 1831
D26834
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 48a
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘[?]Aros Tobermory’ upper centre, ‘Tobay’ centre left, ‘Tobmy’ lower centre left, ?‘Cals’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The same inscription, which probably says ‘Tobermory’, appears on this page five times, although the Mull village is not obvious in any of the sketches. Several houses seem to be depicted in the bottom sketch just beneath the inscription, and this could possibly be a view of Tobermory Bay from just south-east of Calve Island, although the island in this sketch looks too hilly. The present author is sceptical about David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan’s suggestion that this could be a view from the shore of Ardnamurchan looking towards the headland called Maclean’s Nose.1 With the sun straight ahead, low in the sky and reflected in the water, this must either be a view east in early morning, or west in the evening. The other two sketches show two coastlines, suggesting the Sound of Mull, although the exact locations have not been identified.
For more information about Turner’s visit to Mull see folio 1 verso (D26749).

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner on Mull and Staffa’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [folio 12].

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘?Tobermory and the Sound of Mull 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-tobermory-and-the-sound-of-mull-r1135192, accessed 08 May 2024.