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 Inverfarigaig Pass, or the Falls of Foyers 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inverfarigaig Pass, or the Falls of Foyers’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
Inverfarigaig Pass, or the Falls of Foyers 1831
D27022
Turner Bequest CCLXXVI 32
Pencil on off-white laid writing paper, 150 x 179 mm irregular
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘32’ top left running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXVI 32’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view from a high point above a gorge shows the same view that Turner depicted across folios 32 verso–33 (D27023–D27024), which David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have suggested may be either the Falls of Foyers on the east coast of Loch Ness or the Pass of Inverfarigaig to its north.1 The shape of the hill at the left and the western shore of Loch Ness in the distance are the same in both sketches. Beneath is a stream, either the River Foyers or the stream through the pass. Evidence to suggest that this is Foyers rather than Inverfarigaig is on folio 26 verso (D27013) which has a similar composition, but can be more confidently identified as a view towards Loch Ness from the top of the Falls of Foyers.
Turner visited Foyers (and perhaps Inverfarigaig) during a scheduled stop on his steamboat journey north up Loch Ness towards Inverness (see folio 40 verso; D27034 for references).

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].

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Inverfarigaig Pass, or the Falls of Foyers 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-inverfarigaig-pass-or-the-falls-of-foyers-r1135387, accessed 24 September 2024.