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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Scotch Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of the Head of Loch Awe, with Kilchurn Castle from the South-West 1801

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of the Head of Loch Awe, with Kilchurn Castle from the South-West’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 53 Recto:
Distant View of the Head of Loch Awe, with Kilchurn Castle from the South-West 1801
D03012
Turner Bequest LVI 51
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
Partial watermark ‘mott | 97’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[Kilchirn] Castle Loch Awe’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘51’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LVI – 51’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Turner’s apparent difficulty in spelling ‘Kilchurn’ here is hardly surprising: the name is pronounced ‘Kiloorn’. This is the first of a sequence of drawings of the castle and its environs that continues to folio 66 recto (D03038; Turner Bequest LVI 64).
The castle was built in about 1440 by Margaret, wife of Sir Colin Campbell, 1st Laird of Glenurquhay (Glenorchy), and saw action in the English Civil War of the seventeenth century, but had become largely ruinous by the mid-eighteenth century. The Campbell family built numerous castles in the Highlands, among them Dochart (see folios 75 verso–76 recto; D03057–D03058; Turner Bequest LVI 73a–74) and Taymouth (see folios 93 verso–98 recto; D03092–D03101; Turner Bequest LVI 91a–96). Inveraray (see folios 42 verso–43 recto; D02993–D02994; Turner Bequest LVI 40a–41) is the seat of the senior Campbell, the Duke of Argyll.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Distant View of the Head of Loch Awe, with Kilchurn Castle from the South-West 1801 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-distant-view-of-the-head-of-loch-awe-with-kilchurn-castle-r1179207, accessed 30 June 2024.