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Diciadain, 23/May/2012

Joseph Turner's Islay Sketches

Islay Pictures in stencil

No, not another video today, although I might post one tomorrow. Instead some rather older sketches of Islay and Jura, mainly from Port Askaig and Finlaggan. They are from Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), quite a lot of his work is in the archives of the Tate Gallery. Among them a few from a visit to Islay, I believe in 1831:

Picture of a tiny snippet from a larger sketch

They can be found in the Stirling and the West Sketchbook [Turner Bequest CCLXX] 1831. Some are very difficult to make out (after all they are sketches only and almost 200 years old), others are much better. Some of the best ones I found are the following:

Not yet Islay, but many will be familiar with these views from the journey to Islay, Duniquoich Hill, Inveraray and Inveraray Castle. Moving on to Islay we start with the lead mines near Ballygrant at the bottom of this page (Paps of Jura on the left?). Over to Port Askaig on the top of this page. Three sketches of Finlaggan, at the bottom of this page looking south, looking north east with the Paps in the background here and Eilean Mor at the bottom here. Port Askaig can be found in the middle of this page and much better in full view here, the main features quickly recognisable. More Port Askaig at the bottom here, several sailing ships moored or anchored. Finally a view of the Sound of Islay on the bottom of this page, presumably from Port Askaig or near it.

These were only the ones I found most interesting and clear, there are several others to be found in the sketchbook. In some of them it says Islay and/or Jura, but it is very hard to make out anything. Either way, I found it very interesting to look through the sketchbook, a fascinating historic document. I hope you found them interesting as well.

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