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

Drawn with the sketchbook turned to the right are two sketches of Lochleven Castle in Loch Leven near Kinross, and two of Burleigh Castle near the village of Milnathort. Lochleven Castle is shown in a view from the south at the top of this page; see also folios 15 verso and 26 verso (D26717, D26726; CCLXXII 27, 32). This view was taken from a boat on the loch, while the sketch beneath may have been made from the Kinross shore to the west. To the right of the castle are the Lomond Hills, above which Turner wrote an inscription that Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan have read as ‘QM’, referring to Queen Mary I who was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle, an event that is the subject of Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Abbot, 1820. Turner’s watercolour of Lochleven Castle, circa 1835 (whereabouts unknown),1 was engraved to illustrate the novel in Fisher’s Landscape – Historical Illustrations of Scotland and the Waverley Novels. For more information about Turner’s sketches of Lochleven Castle see folio 25 verso (D26708; CCLXXII 23).

The first Burleigh Castle sketch at the centre of the page is a view from the south-east, with the tower house at the right and the south-east tower to the left. Connecting the two is the remains of the west range, now just a single wall. The sketch beneath is from the north-east. For references to further views of Burleigh Castle and more information on it, see folio 8 (D26695; CCLXXII 16).

At the very bottom of the page is a small sketch of a tree, drawn with the book turned to the right from the other sketches. This appears to be the continuation of a sketch from folio 26 (D26727; CCLXXII 32a), which Turner peeled back in order to continue the view slightly to the left. This is therefore a tree to the west of Lochleven Castle.