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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Fort George From Ardersier Bay 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Fort George From Ardersier Bay’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
?Fort George From Ardersier Bay 1831
D27062
Turner Bequest CCLXXVII 10
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 104 x 163 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘25’ top centre, ‘Campbell’ top right
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘10’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXVII 10’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Towards the page gutter is a sketch of a bay inscribed ‘Campbell’. David Wallace-Hadrill has suggested that this may refer to Campbleton, a hamlet that was later absorbed into Ardersier on the shore of the Moray Firth near Fort George.1 Therefore this could be a sketch looking north along the bay towards the promontory on which Fort George sits. The fort may be represented as a dark shape at the end of the promontory, with an inscription above it that appears to read ‘25’. Therefore the shore of the Black Isle around Rosemarkie, across the firth, would be behind it. For references to further sketches of Fort George, see folio 6 (D27054).
With the sketchbook inverted, and drawn parallel with the fore-edge of the page, is a rough sketch of a view across water from a bay. Wallace-Hadrill has suggested that this may be Inverness as seen from the mouth of the River Ness to the north, while Janet Carolan suggests that it may be a view on the Dornoch Firth.2

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Sketchbook CCLXXVII Inverness’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [unpaginated].
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘?Fort George From Ardersier Bay 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-fort-george-from-ardersier-bay-r1135428, accessed 19 April 2024.