J.M.W. Turner
>
1830-35 Annual tourist
>
Scotland 1831
>
Staffa Sketchbook
>
Artwork
Joseph Mallord William Turner Staffa from the North; and Other Sketches of Nearby Islands 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Verso:
Staffa from the North; and Other Sketches of Nearby Islands 1831
D26818
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 40a
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 40a
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘cal’ lower right descending vertically
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘cal’ lower right descending vertically
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.876, CCLXXIII 40a, as ‘Island, from the sea: Staffa.’.
1969
John Gage, Colour in Turner: Poetry and Truth, London 1969, pp.126, 253 note 247.
1972
Werner Haftmann, Andrew Wilton, Henning Bock and others, J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, exhibition catalogue, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1972, p.113 under cat.17.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.198 under cat.347.
The sketch that has attracted the most attention on this page is the one drawn with the book inverted at the bottom of the page. This was identified by Finberg as one of Turner’s sketches of the Isle of Staffa,1 seen here from the north.2 There is a very similar, but larger, sketch of the island on the reverse of this page (folio 40; D16817), and further sketches on folios 8 verso–9, 18 verso–22 verso, 24 verso, 27 verso–30 verso, 34 verso, 35, 39 and 42 (D26760–D26761, D26777–D26785, D26788, D26794 –D26800, D26806, D26807, D26815, D26821). In the present sketch, probably one of the first sketches he made as he approached the island, Turner recorded the basic shape of the island, while on 40 verso he began to study the formation of the basalt columns of which the island is composed.
At the right of the page, drawn with the book turned to the left, is a sketch of a building on an island inscribed ‘Cal’. This may be part of the ruin of Cairnburgh Castle, which is in two parts on the islands of Cairn na Burgh More and Cairn na Burgh Beg, the most north-easterly of the Treshnish Isles (see also folio 42 verso; D26822).
Beneath the Staffa sketch is a sketch of islands that Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan suggest may be of Muck and Eigg with Skye in the distance,3 presumably seen from the south. At the bottom of the page, drawn with the sketchbook inverted, is a sketch of a coastline with a sailing boat.
Thomas Ardill
March 2010
How to cite
Thomas Ardill, ‘Staffa from the North; and Other Sketches of Nearby Islands 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www