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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Scotch Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Ruined Tower in a Broad Landscape: ?Comrie Castle 1801

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Ruined Tower in a Broad Landscape: ?Comrie Castle’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 107 Recto:
A Ruined Tower in a Broad Landscape: ?Comrie Castle 1801
D03119
Turner Bequest LVI 105
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
Partial watermark ‘C Wi | 17’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Glen Lyon’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘105’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LVI – 105’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Comrie Castle is a small tower or fortalice at the eastern end of Glen Lyon; Turner’s inscription may therefore indicate that this is the building he drew here and on folios 104 verso–105 recto (D03114–D03115; Turner Bequest LVI 102a–103).
However, folio 106 verso opposite (D03118; Turner Bequest LVI 104a) has a sketch map of ‘Garth’, and he annotated the drawing on folios 108 verso–109 recto (D03122–D03123; Turner Bequest LVI 106a–107) ‘Castle Gaugh Glen Lyon’, suggesting either that he misunderstood the location of Garth Castle, a ruined tower a mile north of Comrie, or that he had forgotten these details when, after a lapse of time, he came to annotate this book. It seems unlikely that Turner actually travelled further into Glen Lyon, unless he ventured as far as Fortingall, two miles to the west along the valley.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Ruined Tower in a Broad Landscape: ?Comrie Castle 1801 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-ruined-tower-in-a-broad-landscape-comrie-castle-r1179314, accessed 30 June 2024.