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

Inscribed ‘Kin L Ard’ and ‘B Lomond’, the sketch at the top of this page shows the distinctive profile of Ben Lomond as seen from the west. ‘Kin L Ard’ has been interpreted as a reference to Kinlochard, a village at the western end of Loch Ard, indicating that this is a view from near Kinlochard across Loch Ard to Ben Lomond.1 Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan have read the inscription below as ‘Loch Mo(n)te’, a reference to the Lake of Menteith, which lies about two miles to the east of Loch Ard.2 The inscription, however, could as easily be read as ‘Loch Ard’, and the hills to the left of the loch are also much more suggestive of Loch Ard; there are no hills to the south of Menteith. The two sketches beneath are also likely to be views across Loch Ard. The inscription on the third sketch has not been deciphered, though one of the words could be ‘Rob’, perhaps a references to Rob Roy’s Cave on the southern shore of the loch, or the relevance of the area to Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy, 1817; see Loch Ard sketchbook Introduction.

For further sketches of the loch, see folio 3 verso (D26677; CCLXXII 6).