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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Culloden 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Verso:
Culloden 1831
D27051
Turner Bequest CCLXXVII 4a
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 104 x 163 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Culloden Hil’ lower centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inscribed ‘Culloden Hil’, this is the only sketch by Turner that has been identified as showing the site of the famous battle between Jacobite and government forces in 1746. The sketch is in two halves with the left-hand side at the top, and the right-hand side beneath. It was made from a distance and shows only the outline of low hills with shrubs and a few trees in the foreground. David Wallace-Hadrill suggests that the view is from the Black Isle across the Moray Firth to the north.1
It is perhaps surprising that the artist, having come within about a mile of the battlefield, seems not to have visited it, especially considering his interest in the battlefield of Waterloo (which he had visited in 1817) and his commission to sketch subjects for Sir Walter Scott, who had such an interest in the battle of Culloden (see Tour of Scotland for Scott’s Poetical Works 1831 Tour Introduction).2
The simple explanation is perhaps that Turner was aware that there was little to see at Culloden, and, having no specific commission, he did not think the diversion worthwhile. By this late stage in his Scottish tour, Turner’s sketches in the Inverness sketchbook had become generally rough and rapidly executed. While he treated a few subjects (such as Elgin Cathedral) with deliberation and care, other subjects were clearly sketched very quickly as he passed by. Despite there being very little to see from across the Moray Firth, Turner could not pass up this opportunity to capture at least a quick impression of the historic site, labelling it perhaps for posterity rather than future reference as the basis of a more finished work.

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Sketchbook CCLXXVII Inverness’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [unpaginated].
2
Turner’s interest in Scottish military and national history is evinced by his visit in 1834 to the battlefield of Bannockburn: Tate D26346; Turner Bequest CCLXIX 46a.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Culloden 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-culloden-r1135417, accessed 28 March 2024.