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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner East Lothian Coast: View out to Sea with The Bass Rock 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘East Lothian Coast: View out to Sea with The Bass Rock’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Verso:
East Lothian Coast: View out to Sea with The Bass Rock 1818
D13602
Turner Bequest CLXVII 9a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn over two pages (continuing on folio 11; D13603; CLXVII 10) is a view looking out to sea from Seacliff Beach on the East Lothian coast. In the centre of the sketch is a large rock a few yards out to sea between the crags known as the Gegan, the edge of which frames the picture to the left, and an outcrop called St Baldred’s Boat, which can be seen to the right on folio 11 and now has a small lighthouse on it. We look towards the Bass Rock, most of which can be seen behind the rock to its left on the current page, though it is only drawn in faint outline. In the sky are several small fluffy clouds, similar to those in sketches of the Bass in the Bass Rock and Edinburgh sketchbook (11 verso; Tate D13342; Turner Bequest CLXVII 10a).
There are brown marks at the left and a blue mark at the bottom right of the page which is mirrored on folio 11.

Thomas Ardill
February 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘East Lothian Coast: View out to Sea with The Bass Rock 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2008, 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-east-lothian-coast-view-out-to-sea-with-the-bass-rock-r1132150, accessed 19 May 2024.