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

There are nine separate sketches on this page, drawn with the sketchbook in three different orientations. With the fore-edge at the top of the page is a sequence of four sketches of Ardtornish Castle on the Sound of Mull, arranged diagonally from the bottom left to the top right. All four show the castle from the south-east (as in folio 53; D26844), and were made as Turner steamed down the sound of Mull towards Oban. The four studies demonstrate the artist’s attempt to visualise the irregular shape of the ruins using different approaches. The second sketch from the top is the most detailed, and shows the intact and ruined parts of the masonry as well as the windows, with shading to help capture the shape and ragged character. By contrast, the other three sketches are more diagrammatic, simply giving the outline of each wall.

The other sketches on the page are less certain. At the upper right is a rough sketch that may show the same ruin on a headland, though it is very indistinct. The sketch at the bottom of the page, drawn with the sketchbook inverted, may also be of Ardtornish, though if so it is from the east (see folio 51 verso; D26841). However, it could be some other ruin such as the nearby Duart Castle (see folio 55 verso; D26849). A sketch of a hut at the lower right of the page may also be associated with Ardtornish, and may depict the hut or small dwelling that sat on the promontory beneath the castle and can be seen in a sketch on folio 54 (D26846).

At the upper left of the page, drawn with the sketchbook turned to the right, are two panoramic sketches of the Sound of Mull. The top sketch shows a coastline with a ruin on an island or headland. There are two inscriptions, though both are hard to decipher. At the left the letters ‘Cas’ presumably mean castle, though which castle is uncertain. The other word could perhaps say ‘Aros’, but this contradicts the possibility that the inscription at the right says ‘Morvern’, referring to the mainland on the north-eastern side of the Sound of Mull. In the context of the page it is likely that it is simply another view of Ardtornish. The sketch beneath is inscribed ‘Mull’, so it must show a view of the Isle of Mull to the south of the Sound.

For further views of Ardtornish Castle see folio 51 (D26840). Turner’s trip down the Sound of Mull from Tobermory to Oban is recorded over folios 48–57 verso (D26833–D26852).