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 Dunstaffnage Castle from a Headland to the North-East 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dunstaffnage Castle from a Headland to the North-East’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 92 Recto:
Dunstaffnage Castle from a Headland to the North-East 1831
D26922
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 92
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘92’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXIII 92’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These two sketches of Dunstaffnage Castle were both made from a headland that lies about half a mile along Loch Etive to the east. Standing at the end of the headland Turner was slightly north of the castle, and so it appears in the top sketch near the end of the promontory at the mouth of Loch Etive. Behind the castle and across Loch Linnhe are the mountains on the island of Mull to the left and the hills of Morvern to the right.
The second sketch was made from the same spot, but this time looks north-west rather than due west, with the castle (drawn in outline alone this time) at the very left of the sketch, with the north bank of Loch Etive at the right and the mountains beyond Loch Linnhe in the distance. A boat is anchored near the north bank, where a row of box shapes may represent small buildings or shacks.
There are further sketches of the castle from the north-east on folio 92 verso (D26923) and 97 verso (D26935; CCLXXIII 98a), and a view from the east on 91 verso (D26921). See folio 89 (D26916) for a full list of Turner’s sketches of Dunstaffnage.

Thomas Ardill
January 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Dunstaffnage Castle from a Headland to the North-East 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-dunstaffnage-castle-from-a-headland-to-the-north-east-r1135279, accessed 25 April 2024.