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 Sketches of Aros Castle and Salen with Ben Mor, Mull 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of Aros Castle and Salen with Ben Mor, Mull’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Verso:
Sketches of Aros Castle and Salen with Ben Mor, Mull 1831
D26837
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 49a
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Ben Moor’ top right, and ‘Sale’ lower left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These two sketches were made from the Sound of Mull and belong to a series of sketches that chart Turner’s return to Oban from Tobermory (folios 48–57 verso; D26833–D26852). The top sketch is of Aros Castle on Mull as seen from the north. Turner had made sketches of the castle during his journey up the Sound of Mull from Oban to Skye in the Sound of Mull no.1 sketchbook (Tate D26954; Turner Bequest CCLXXIV 10a), and now took the opportunity to draw it a few more times. There are further sketches of the castle on folios 50 and 50 verso (D26838, D26839). Above the castle is the double peak of Ben Mor, labelled ‘Ben Moor’ by Turner. On the left, further down the coast, are some of the houses of the village of Salen.
Salen is depicted again in the second sketch, which is inscribed ‘Sale’ and was made straight after the Aros sketch, with Ben Mor again seen in the distance. There are further sketches of Salen on folios 49 (D26836) and 50 verso.

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches of Aros Castle and Salen with Ben Mor, 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-sketches-of-aros-castle-and-salen-with-ben-mor-mull-r1135194, accessed 25 April 2024.