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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tantallon Castle 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tantallon Castle’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Verso:
Tantallon Castle 1818
D13607
Turner Bequest CLXVII 12a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is taken from just west of Tantallon Castle (visible on the other half of this sketch: folio 14; D13608; CLXVII 13) looking north towards Bass Rock. Headlands rise on either side and we look between them down to the sea. Turner sketched Tantallon Castle from all sides in preparation for his Provincial Antiquities illustration: Tantallon Castle, 1821 (watercolour, Manchester City Art Galleries),1 many of which also show the Bass Rock. The island was included in the final watercolour, although partially obscured by rocks and waves.

Thomas Ardill
February 2008

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426 no.1067.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Tantallon Castle 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-tantallon-castle-r1132155, accessed 22 November 2024.