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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Kinkell Castle and Strathconon, the Black Isle 1831

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
Kinkell Castle and Strathconon, the Black Isle 1831
D27064
Turner Bequest CCLXXVII 11
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 104 x 163 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘11’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXVII 11’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have made two suggestions for the identity of this ruined tower house. Wallace-Hadrill initially suggested Fairburn Tower in Strathconon, to the south-west of Conon Bridge on the Black Isle.1 However, Carolan’s suggestion of Kinkell Castle is a closer match for the ruin (which has three storeys and a circular stair-tower at one corner), and lies closer to Turner’s most likely route north to Evanton from Inverness. The background is a good match for Strathconon, which lies to the west of the castle, with the River Conon running through it. There is another view of the same castle on folio 10 verso (D27063).
1
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Sketchbook CCLXXVII Inverness’, [circa 1991], Tate catalogue files, [unpaginated].
Verso:
Blank

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Kinkell Castle and Strathconon, the Black Isle 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-kinkell-castle-and-strathconon-the-black-isle-r1135430, accessed 29 March 2024.