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

This is Turner’s second sketch of Bothwell Castle from the west. Like the first, drawn on the reverse of this page (folio 26; D26309) it is fairly hastily drawn, though it includes accurate and useful architectural and topographical detail such as the castle’s towers, windows and gun loops, the shape of the river and the outline of distant low hills. Turner’s line is more tentative than the first sketch, and the top of the cylindrical south-east tower is notably vague. In this sketch less can be seen of the clump of trees behind the castle, but more of the River Clyde is visible to the right. The west end of the castle, which is out of sight to the left of this sketch, is depicted on folio 27 (D26311).

For a full list of Turner’s sketches of Bothwell Castle see folio 26.