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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle from the South 1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle from the South’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle from the South 1834
D26202
Turner Bequest CCLXVIII 55
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 181 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘7 guns’ top left
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘55’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVIII – 55’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main sketch, down across the left half of this page, depicts the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle as seen from nearby to the south. An inscription above the sketch notes ‘7 guns’; the artist also noted the canons in a sketch of the Half Moon Battery in the Stirling and Edinburgh sketchbook: Tate D26404 (Turner Bequest CCLXIX 76).
Turner is reported to have walked to the High Street to see the castle on 1 October 1834, before heading to the Grassmarket to make further sketches of it from there.1 This sketch, and another on folio 63 verso (D26218), as well as a sketch in the Stirling and Edinburgh sketchbook (Tate D26404; Turner Bequest CCLXIX 76), seem to have been made from Johnston Terrace, which Turner must have reached from the High Street via the steps of Castle Wynd North. The sketch at the right of the page may look east from Johnston Terrace, with Castle Wynd North climbing up the slope to the castle.
For further information about Turner’s sketches of Edinburgh Castle see folio 63 verso.
There are light brown stains in the page gutter at the top right.

Thomas Ardill
November 2010

1
Robert Cadell, Diary 1834, Wednesday 1 October 1834, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh MS 21024, folio 42.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle from the South 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-great-hall-of-edinburgh-castle-from-the-south-r1136130, accessed 24 April 2024.