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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Staffa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Three Sisters of Glencoe 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Three Sisters of Glencoe’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Verso:
The Three Sisters of Glencoe 1831
D26775
Turner Bequest CCLXXIII 17a
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Glenco’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch and a similar one on folio 18 (D26776) show a south-west view of the Three Sisters of Glencoe (ridges of the mountain Bidean nam Bian) from the road through the glen. The ridges form a wall along the south side of the glen, with the Notched Ridge (visible on folio 18) enclosing the glen to the north. A serpentine line at the centre right represents either the road towards Ballachulish, or the River Coe which runs alongside it. A number of Turner’s sketches of Glencoe (see folio 2; D26750) include this feature; with similar studies on folios 10 and 11 (D26763, D26765).

Thomas Ardill
April 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘The Three Sisters of Glencoe 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2010, 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-the-three-sisters-of-glencoe-r1135133, accessed 22 November 2024.