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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of Loch Leven; Kinross Town Hall; and Castle Campbell 1834

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of Loch Leven; Kinross Town Hall; and Castle Campbell’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Verso:
Sketches of Loch Leven; Kinross Town Hall; and Castle Campbell 1834
D26716
Turner Bequest CCLXXII 27
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 182 x 117 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘1’ twice at top right, ?‘island w Prior’ beneath the top sketch, ‘2’ upper right across the second sketch, ‘Pry’ upper centre beneath the third sketch, ‘3’ upper centre right
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘27’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXII 27’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook turned to the right are six sketches.1 The top four were made on Loch Leven near Kinross. Because of the inscription ‘Pry’, Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan have associated the top sketch and the third sketch down with the priory on the island of St Serf’s, the largest island on the loch. However, the island and the ruins are hard to make out and decipher because the island is so flat and featureless and the ruins are so minimal. It is plausible that the top sketch may show the ruins, and that St Serf’s Inch (or Island) with the Lomond Hills may be depicted in the fourth sketch. The second and third sketches are more likely to be Loch Leven Castle, first from the south and then from the west, with the Lomond Hills beyond. For more information about Turner’s sketches of Lochleven Castle see folio 25 verso (D26708; CCLXXII 23).
To the west of Lochleven is the town of Kinross. While Turner does not seem to have been very interested in sketching the town as a whole, he did make a quick sketch of the Town Hall steeple at the bottom right of the page, drawn with the book turned to the left from the other sketches.
Across the bottom half of the page is a sketch of Castle Campbell, as seen from the glen to the south-west. This is one of numerous sketches that Turner made of the castle from various viewpoints; see folio 6 verso (D26688; CCLXXII 12).2

Thomas Ardill
October 2010

1
Identified by Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1990, pp.19–20.
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches of Loch Leven; Kinross Town Hall; and Castle Campbell 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-sketches-of-loch-leven-kinross-town-hall-and-castle-campbell-r1136396, accessed 26 April 2024.