- Museum number
- 1910,0212.275
- Description
-
Loch Fyne; water to right and in centre with rocks to left and level ground where figures stand and sit, rowing boats on loch in centre, with wooded shore to left in distance and mountains beyond. 1815
Watercolour with scratching out
- Production date
- 1815
- Dimensions
-
Height: 278 millimetres
-
Width: 388 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Turner visited Loch Fyne during his first extensive tour of Scotland in 1801. He seems to have been pleased with the amount of ground he managed to cover, as, unusually, he recorded the exact dates of the tour in one of the eight sketchbooks he carried with him: '18 of July left Edinburgh and on the 5 of August finish'd this book at Gretna Green'. Judging from the number of drawings, Turner stayed longer at Loch Fyne than any other location on the tour, partly, no doubt, because he had a commission from the Duke of Argyll for a watercolour of Inverary Castle (W349). A watercolour of the town of Inverary on the loch, datable stylistically to around 1803-5, is in Manchester Art Gallery (W352). Apart from that work, 1910-2-12-275 which shows a less populated part of the head of the loch, is the only other watercolour of Loch Fyne now known.
The artist may possibly have painted another view, as Wilton records that a view of Loch Fyne, dated 1810, was exhibited at Turners Gallery in 1810; the rest of the information he records about this work, W350, in fact applies to W351, the work currently under discussion, which is dated 1815. It may be that the Loch Fyne exhibited in 1810 bore some relation to the subject published for the Liber Studiorum in 1811, Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne. Morning, although Forrester speculates that Turners extensive alterations may indicate that he elaborated the subject directly onto the plate (see G. Forrester, Turners Drawing Book, 1996, cat. 35).
The watercolour is based on one of the carefully drawn studies Turner made during the Scottish tour, now known as the 'Scottish pencils'. This drawing, TB LVIII 8, is virtually the same size as the watercolour which follows it closely, except for the addition of some more figures in the left foreground (see C. Holme, 'The genius of J.M.W. Turner RA, 1903, pl. MW 9, for a reproduction of the drawing).
Ref: L. Caldesi & Co. 'The Farnley Hall Collection of Turner drawings in the possession of F.H.Fawkes Esq, 1864, pl.29; Athenaeum 15 November 1879, 'The Private collections of England, Farnley Hall, Otley', p. 636.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1819 Grosvenor Place, London, no.6
1839 Music Hall, Leeds, Leeds Public Exhibition in aid of the Mechanics' Institute, no.21
1910 Agnew's, London, Collection of pictures and drawings of the late Mr George Salting, no.215
1980, June-July, York City Art Gallery, 'Turner in Yorkshire', no.83
1982 Oct-Nov, Aberdeen Art Gallery, 'Turner in Scotland', no.18
2005 Feb-April, London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 'The Triumph of Watercolour', no.61
2005 May-Aug, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, 'The Triumph of Watercolour'
- Acquisition date
- 1910
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1910,0212.275
