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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Doune Castle from the North-West 1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 62 Verso:
Doune Castle from the North-West 1834
D26377
Turner Bequest CCLXIX 62a
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘W S’ lower right, ‘D water’ and ‘ash’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook turned to the right are three sketches of Doune Castle from the north and north-west. The top two depict the castle in isolation, while the third places the building in the context of its landscape setting with the approach road in the foreground. The ‘D[ark] Water’ of the River Teith is show at the left behind a clump of ‘ash’ trees.
The inscription ‘W S’ may stand for ‘west side’, indicating the direction from which the sketch was made, or perhaps it is a reference to ‘Walter Scott’ whose novel Waverley, 1816, has Doune Castle as one of its setting. Turner had been commissioned by Robert Cadell to illustrate a new edition of the Waverley Novels, so may have been considering using Doune as the illustration to Waverly, as had several previous illustrators; see folio 52 verso (D26358). In the event Turner did not illustrate the new edition, and there are no paintings or watercolours of the castle.
For further information and a full list of Turner’s sketches of the castle, see folio 52 verso.

Thomas Ardill
November 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Doune Castle from the North-West 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-doune-castle-from-the-north-west-r1136307, accessed 20 September 2024.