J.M.W. Turner
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1830-35 Annual tourist
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Scotland 1834
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Loch Ard Sketchbook
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Artwork
Joseph Mallord William Turner Bridge and Hills, ?Aberfoyle 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Verso:
Bridge and Hills, ?Aberfoyle 1834
D26740
Turner Bequest CCLXXII 39
Turner Bequest CCLXXII 39
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 184 x 119 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘road’ ?‘[...]’ upper left ‘15 to Cand’ bottom left
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘39’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXII 39’ top right
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘road’ ?‘[...]’ upper left ‘15 to Cand’ bottom left
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘39’ top right running vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXII 39’ top right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.874, CCLXXII 39, as ‘Mountains.’.
1990
Dr David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan, ‘Turner North of Stirling in 1831; a checklist (2)’, Turner Studies: His Art and Epoch 1775–1851, vol.10 no.2, Winter 1990, p.25.
David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have argued that the sketches on this page were made at Cromlix Bridge over the Allan Water, near the village of Kinbuck near Dunblane.1 Their argument rests on Turner’s inscriptions which they read as ‘15 to Cand’ and ‘...mound’. They interpret these as references to Cromlix and Drummond, the name of the family which owned Cromlix House. While the bridge depicted in the second and bottom sketch does resemble Cromlix Bridge, and the hills in the sketch could possibly be those to the south, Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan’s argument is based on a suggested itinerary for Turner that has since been revised, making a visit to Kinbuck even more of a detour than the authors have suggested. The present author also doubts the reading of any of Turner’s inscriptions as ‘mound’.
An alternative location for these sketches is the bridge over the River Forth at Aberfoyle. The town is about eleven miles from Callander by the most direct route, or closer to fifteen miles via Loch Vennachar and Loch Achray, to the eastern end of Loch Katrine and south down the Duke’s Pass to Aberfoyle, which was Turner’s possible route around the Trossachs in 1834: see folio 39 verso (D27779; CCLXXII 7). This could explain the inscription at the bottom of the page – ‘15 to Cand’ – which may mean fifteen miles to Callander. The hills to the west of Aberfoyle, including Craigmore, Ben Venue and Ben Lomond in the distance, which make a better match for the hills in these sketches.
Thomas Ardill
February 2011
How to cite
Thomas Ardill, ‘Bridge and Hills, ?Aberfoyle 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www