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 > Edinburgh, 1818, Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner North and South Shields from the East 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘North and South Shields from the East’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
North and South Shields from the East 1818
D13473
Turner Bequest CLXVI 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 90 x 112 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXVI 13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch of North Shields is identifiably by its two harbour lights known as Low Light (left) and High Light (right), which were built in 1802 and still stand today. They can be seen in an aquatint of the town by William Daniell (North Shields, Northumberland, 1822; Tate T02928) that like this drawing shows a view from the east near Tynemouth at the mouth of the River Tyne.
This is Turner’s most carefully rendered sketch of the town and it continues to the left on folio 12 verso (D13472) where we see shipping in the Tyne Estuary and South Shields, which Turner painted for the Rivers of England series: Shields, on the River Tyne, 1823 (Tate D18155; Turner Bequest CCVIII V).1 North Shields with the Low Light can be seen in the background of that picture.
Turner reached Shields by way of Newcastle which he also sketched for the Rivers series (Tate D13588; Turner Bequest CLXVII 2) on his journey to Edinburgh in 1818. From here he continued his journey by road, travelling via Morpeth on the way to North Berwick (see Tour of Scotland 1818 Tour Introduction).
Above the sketch is the continuation of a sketch of a coast of shoreline from folio 12 verso. This may be the coast nearby, or is perhaps the coast of the River Forth.
There are further sketches of North and South Shields on folios 1 verso–7 and 9 verso–16 (D13450–D13461, D13466–D13479).

Thomas Ardill
August 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.384 no.732.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘North and South Shields from the East 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2009, 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-north-and-south-shields-from-the-east-r1132018, accessed 22 November 2024.