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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views on the Caledonian Canal at Loch Lochy 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views on the Caledonian Canal at Loch Lochy’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
Views on the Caledonian Canal at Loch Lochy 1831
D26972
Turner Bequest CCLXXVI 6
Pencil on off-white laid writing paper, 150 x 184 mm irregular
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Gillat’ centre, ‘Canal’ bottom-left, ?‘Old R’ lower-centre-right
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘6’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXVI 6’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The two sketches on this page are likely to depict views on Loch Lochy, and were made as Turner travelled north along the Caledonian Canal on his way to Inverness.1 The top sketch is inscribed ‘Gillat’, which is not particularly helpful as there is no such place. It could, however, be a reference to Glas-dhoire, which lies about halfway up the western shore of the loch and has a single storey ruin and a path that curves around the slight headland. The shape of the hilly shoreline is about right for this part of the loch.
The second sketch may be inscribed ‘canal’, and Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan have suggested that this is the ‘Loch Oich end of Lochy’,2 by which they must mean Laggan at the northern end of the loch. There may be a lock at the left with a building behind it that could be the lock keeper’s cottage. The inscription ‘Old R’ [or ‘Old B’] may indicate an old road or bridge. A sketch on folio 11 (D26982) is inscribed ‘Laggan’ and shows the approach to the head of the Loch. The present view was made from the canal, perhaps between the Laggan locks. Further sketches of Loch Lochy are on folios 6 verso and 7 (D26973, D26974).

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner’s 1831 Sketchbook T.B. CCLXXVI Fort Augustus’, [circa 1992–3], Tate catalogue files, [unpaginated].
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Views on the Caledonian Canal at Loch Lochy 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-views-on-the-caledonian-canal-at-loch-lochy-r1135337, accessed 19 April 2024.