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 The Sound of Mull and Ardtornish Castle from the West 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Sound of Mull and Ardtornish Castle from the West’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
The Sound of Mull and Ardtornish Castle from the West 1831
D26848
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 55
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘55’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXIII 55’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The three sketches on this page were made while Turner travelled down the Sound of Mull from Tobermory to Oban. Approaching the mouth of the Sound, having passed Ardtornish Castle on the Morvern side (folios 51–54 verso; D26840–D26847), the artist turned back for one final view of the castle which he sketched at the upper left of this page. The presence of a boat at the left of this sketch suggests that it was around this part of the Sound or the Firth of Lorn that Turner saw the group of boats he sketched beneath. At the top of the page is a sketch made from the Firth of Lorn, looking west towards the Sound of Mull with the shore of Mull on the left and Morvern on the right. Turner made further sketches of this view on folio 55 verso (D26849).

Thomas Ardill
March 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘The Sound of Mull and Ardtornish Castle from the West 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-the-sound-of-mull-and-ardtornish-castle-from-the-west-r1135205, accessed 26 September 2024.