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 > Edinburgh, 1818, Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three views of Rosyth Castle; and two of Roslin Castle 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three views of Rosyth Castle; and two of Roslin Castle’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Recto:
Three views of Rosyth Castle; and two of Roslin Castle 1818
D13545
Turner Bequest CLXVI 49
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 112 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Gran’ top; ?‘com’ top right; ‘[?]plane quay’ upper centre; ‘L[...]’ upper centre right; illegible bottom left; illegible bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVI 49’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketch at the top of this page shows Rosyth Castle from the east with the north bank of the Firth of Forth in the foreground and the opposite bank beyond. In the foreground a boat is pulled up on the beach with a figure standing by and an inscription referring to a ‘quay’. This quay is now the site of the Rosyth Naval Dockyard. Below this is half of a sketch of Rosyth Castle (folio 48 verso; D13544) showing at the left the promontory on which the castle stands, with the south bank of the Forth opposite at the right of the page. At the top left of this page is the slight continuation from folio 48 verso of another sketch of Rosyth.
At the bottom of this page and continuing on folio 48 verso are two sketches of ruins on a hillside which may both show Roslin Castle. The sketch on the right in fact has a very similar composition to Turner’s watercolour of Roslin Castle, circa 1820 (Indianapolis Museum of Art),1 with the castle perched at the top of a steep bank and seen from across the glen. The other sketch may show the approach to the castle with the bridge across the ditch on the left.

Thomas Ardill
January 2008

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426 no.1065.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Three views of Rosyth Castle; and two of Roslin Castle 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-three-views-of-rosyth-castle-and-two-of-roslin-castle-r1132090, accessed 30 June 2024.