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

Although these four sketches were made with the book turned in three different directions, the inscription ‘L[och] Ard’ applied to all of them. At the top of the page is a westerly view across the loch towards the distinctive, and slightly exaggerated, peak of Ben Lomond. The other three sketches may show a view across the loch to the southern shore. The sketch inverted at the foot of the page and the second sketch at the left of the page, drawn with the book turned to the right, include the same small shape near the shoreline, which looks like a ruin. If this is indeed a view of the southern shore, then the ruin may be Duke Murdoch’s Castle, which sits on a small islet at the south-east of the loch. Although very little now remains, the castle once stood, until the early part of the twentieth century, at a considerable height above the islet.1

For references to further views of Loch Ard see folio 3 verso (D26677; CCLXXII 6).

Technical notes:

This page was numbered CCLXXII 19 by A.J. Finberg and regarded as the Recto of the page.1 Since the sketchbook was rebound by Edward Croft-Murray the page has now become the verso of folio 23 (see the Loch Ard sketchbook Introduction). The recto is blank other than the inscription ‘2’ in pencil by an unknown hand at the bottom left of the page, and Croft-Murray’s inscription ‘23’ at the top right of the page.