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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Outline of the Bass Rock 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Outline of the Bass Rock’ 1818 (Inside front cover of sketchbook)
Inside front cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Front Cover:
Outline of the Bass Rock 1818
D40915
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 184 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The inside front cover of this sketchbook has been left empty apart from a small, faint drawing in the top left corner of the outline of Bass Rock as seen from the shore. Turner made dozens of sketches of the island throughout the three 1818 Scottish tour sketchbooks (see Tour of Scotland 1818 Tour Introduction), some exploring its shape from different positions on land and sea, but many from this angle. It was as if he were carrying out an exercise to engrave its distinctive shape on his memory.

Thomas Ardill
February 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Outline of the Bass Rock 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2008, 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-outline-of-the-bass-rock-r1132134, accessed 19 May 2024.