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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Stirling and the West Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Stirling Castle and Highland Mountains from the Ladies' Rock 1831

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Stirling Castle and Highland Mountains from the Ladies' Rock’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Verso:
Stirling Castle and Highland Mountains from the Ladies’ Rock 1831
D26453
Turner Bequest CCLXX 9a
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 201 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Stirling Castle is depicted in outline in the bottom of these three sketches which were all made from the Ladies’ Rock to the south. The Ladies’ Rock is apparently so named because it is where women of the court would stand to watch tournaments in the King’s Park. Turner was perhaps paying tribute to this legend by including two women who sit in the foreground and enjoy the view of the mountains to the west. This view of the Highlands to the north-west is depicted in the other two sketches on the page. There are further detailed sketches of the castle from around this point on folios 8 verso and 9 (D26451, D26452), and similar views on folios 16 and 16 verso (D26466, D26467).
For references to further sketches made in Stirling, see folio 13 (D26460).

Thomas Ardill
May 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Stirling Castle and Highland Mountains from the Ladies’ Rock 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-stirling-castle-and-highland-mountains-from-the-ladies-rock-r1134887, accessed 18 May 2024.