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

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have identified the sketches across this page and folio 1 verso (D26937) as most likely to be of the northern promontory of Kerrera, made shortly after Turner’s steamer left Oban Bay for the Sound of Mull.1 This identification was apparently made on the basis that the order of sketches in the Sound of Mull no.1 sketchbook roughly follow Turner’s journey from Oban Bay up the Sound of Mull on the way to Skye. The four sketches across the two pages, like those on the inside front cover and folio 1 (D41019, D26936), certainly show coastal cliffs, and the general outlines fit the shape of Kerrera as seen from the Firth of Lorn to the north, though beyond that it is difficult to be certain of the subject of these sketches.