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 Foyers Lower Fall 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Foyers Lower Fall’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Foyers Lower Fall 1831
D27010
Turner Bequest CCLXXVI 25
Pencil on off-white laid writing paper, 179 x 150 mm irregular
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘25’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXVI 25’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg was the first to suggest that this sketch might depict the Falls of Foyers,1 although he failed to recognise the other depictions in this sketchbook which have been identified by David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan (see folio 40 verso; D27034).2 This is the larger Lower Fall, seen from below to the left (east) of the waterfall; there is a view from the right of the waterfall on the reverse of this page (D27011). Turner depicted the water with a number of techniques, using overlapping loops to depict the foaming water as it cascaded down the fall, vertical lines to show the faster falling water towards the bottom of the fall, and small areas of shading to represent splashes.

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.881.
2
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner’s 1831 Sketchbook T.B. CCLXXVI Fort Augustus’, [circa 1992–3], Tate catalogue files, [unpaginated].

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Foyers Lower Fall 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-foyers-lower-fall-r1135375, accessed 25 April 2024.