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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ben More and Glen Dochart 1801

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Ben More and Glen Dochart 1801
D03406
Turner Bequest LVIII 27
Pencil, gouache and charcoal on white wove paper prepared with a grey–buff wash, 329 x 494 mm
Blind–stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Stamped in black ‘LVIII – 27’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Art historian Francina Irwin has plausibly identified this view as showing Ben More seen from the north east, looking across Glen Dochart.1 There is a sequence of studies of Ben More from Glen Dochart, none immediately related to this sheet, in the 1801 Scotch Lakes sketchbook (D03065–D03079; Turner Bequest LVI 77a–85). See also Tate D03398, D03402; Turner Bequest LVIII 19, 23).
1
Personal communication.
Technical notes:
The ‘tobacco water’ wash is paler in this sheet than in most of the other ‘Scottish Pencils’ (see the Introduction to the grouping), with a corresponding increase in luminosity and sharper differentiation of tones resulting in a more conventionally satisfying design, which is enhanced by the sweeping diagonal that dominates the composition.
Verso:
Blank

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Ben More and Glen Dochart 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-ben-more-and-glen-dochart-r1179797, accessed 23 November 2024.