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

These sketches were made as Turner’s boat steamed north up Loch Ness away from Urquhart Castle. At the top of the page (the fore-edge) is a sketch of the castle from the north, with the headland on which it stands and the hill Creag na h-Lolaire to the left. There is a sketch of the same view of the castle, but without its setting, at the top of folio 19.

The other sketches were made with the book inverted. Across the middle of the page is a sketch, made from the same point as the previous one, of the western shore of Loch Ness with Urquhart Bay at the centre and Meall na h-Eilrig to the right. The sun is low in the sky to the west and is reflected in the water beneath, indicating that it was late afternoon. To the right is a sketch separated from this one by a faint vertical line. This may be of the shore just to the north of Urquhart Bay.

At the bottom of the page is another sketch of the castle from further off to the north. The castle is at the centre with Creag na h-Lolaire above it, the eastern shore of the loch to the left and Urquhart Bay to the right. There is a similar view on folio 14 verso (D26989).

For references to further sketches of the castle see folio 19 (D26998), and see folio 18 verso (D26997) for references to sketches of Loch Ness.