Joseph Mallord William Turner Details of the Interior of St Giles's Cathedral; Edinburgh from Calton Hill with the City Observatory 1822
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Recto:
Details of the Interior of St Giles’s Cathedral; Edinburgh from Calton Hill with the City Observatory 1822
D17558
Turner Bequest CC 33
Turner Bequest CC 33
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Very faint sign of John Ruskin’s red ink inscription, ?‘33’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CC 33’ top left inverted
Very faint sign of John Ruskin’s red ink inscription, ?‘33’ top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CC 33’ top left inverted
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.I, p.611, CC 33a, as ‘Architectural details; also a view on Calton Hill (?).’.
1975
Gerald Finley, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s Proposal for a “Royal Progress”’, The Burlington Magazine, vol.117, January 1975, p.35 note 34.
1981
Gerald Finley, Turner and George the Fourth in Edinburgh 1822, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1981, pp.82, [127] reproduced as ‘Details of the interior of St Giles’s (The High Kirk); Edinburgh Castle from Calton Hill, and observatory – this sketch is associated with the laying of the foundation stone of the National Monument; related to pencil composition no. 17 of the “Royal Progress” series’.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.153.
With the sketchbook inverted are sketches of parts of the interior of St Giles’s Cathedral, and with the book turned to the left is a view of Calton Hill associated with Turner’s composition of the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone of the National Monument. The largest sketch on the page is of the royal pew, seen from the corner and below. Turner has paid particular attention to the panelling including at the right the royal crest which he drew again on folio 32 verso (D17557) along with the fringe around the top of the box. Less attention is paid to the canopy which he had already drawn in detail on folio 33 verso (D17559) with details of its decoration on 32 verso. Nevertheless a few faint lines do clarify its hexagonal exterior and oval interior. The thistle panel design above may also belong to the pew. At the left of the page is a sketch of the Great East Window. This is the only sketch in St Giles’s that was not utilised for Turner’s oil painting, George IV at St Giles, Edinburgh, circa 1822 (Tate N02857).1
The Calton Hill sketch is related, as Gerald Finley has noticed, to Turner’s composition ‘17’ of the ‘Royal Progress’ series (see Tate D40979; Turner Bequest CCI 43a), and shows figures crowded around the site where the foundation stone of the National Monument was laid on 27 August 1822. The crane that Turner drew on folio 34 verso (D17561) is faintly visible and the ceremony is clearly still in progress. Buildings on Calton Hill frame the tiny composition at the right (the City Observatory) and the left (Nelson’s Monument), and the city of Edinburgh with the castle can be seen beyond to the west. The sketch was copied directly for composition ‘17’, although that sketch is slightly compressed horizontally, bringing the Observatory closer to the castle. Turner also made a series of eight sketches of figures at the ceremony from the top of Nelson’s Monument (see folio 22 verso, D17540).
Thomas Ardill
October 2008
How to cite
Thomas Ardill, ‘Details of the Interior of St Giles’s Cathedral; Edinburgh from Calton Hill with the City Observatory 1822 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www