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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Edinburgh Castle from the Slopes of Arthur's Seat 1834

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Edinburgh Castle from the Slopes of Arthur's Seat’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Recto:
Edinburgh Castle from the Slopes of Arthur’s Seat 1834
D26420
Turner Bequest CCLXIX 84
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 113 x 190 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘84’ bottom left inverted and ‘340’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIX 84’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted across this page and folio 83 verso (D26419) is a view towards Edinburgh from the northern slopes of Arthur’s Seat. It is one of a sequence of similar views of the city drawn on 1 October in preparation for an illustration to Sir Water Scott’s Prose Works: see folio 89 verso (D26431).
Salisbury Crags appear in the foreground of the present page with the Firth of Forth and the distant Fife shore in the background. The Water of Leith is also depicted flowing towards Leith and the River Forth at the left of this sketch. Other than these geographical features, there are no landmarks in this rather diagrammatic sketch, though Edinburgh Castle can be made out on folio 83 verso. Turner made a number of rather rough sketches as he climbed the crags in Holyrood Park (e.g. folios 84 verso, 85 verso and 86; D26421, D26423, D26424), looking for a suitable composition (see folio 89 verso).

Thomas Ardill
November 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Edinburgh Castle from the Slopes of Arthur’s Seat 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-edinburgh-castle-from-the-slopes-of-arthurs-seat-r1136350, accessed 20 September 2024.