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 > Bass Rock and Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rocks off the Coast of Dunbar 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rocks off the Coast of Dunbar’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
Rocks off the Coast of Dunbar 1818
D13327
Turner Bequest CLXV 4
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ?‘Sun’ centre
Stamped in black ‘CLXV 4’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight drawing of rocks off the coast was perhaps made from a boat that Turner took to sketch the Bass Rock. There are several drawings of the rocky headlands around Dunbar as seen from the sea (e.g. folio 6; D13331; CLXV 6), and it is likely that these rocks are nearby. The inscription may read ‘sun’, although it is hard to decipher and looks more like ‘saw’.

Thomas Ardill
October 2007

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Rocks off the Coast of Dunbar 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2007, 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-rocks-off-the-coast-of-dunbar-r1131869, accessed 24 November 2024.