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

This sketch records the view of Scarborough Castle from the vicinity of the present Weaponness Valley road, about a mile south-west of the valley bridge. A small bridge is visible in the foreground below, and perhaps a small mill and mill dam in the valley. Almost exactly the same view was recorded in a lithograph by J. Stubbs published c.1830, although the foreground appears to have been tidied up somewhat by then, to create a better groomed promenade.

It is not quite clear why folios 8 and 9 of Finberg’s 1909 pagination (Tate D11960, D11961) have been reversed in the present binding. The general progression of these sketches is towards the castle and harbour, and the present sketch is a more distant view than D11961.

Verso:

Blank, except for an inscription by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘169 Invent’ bottom left. 169 is the number given to the sketchbook in the original schedule of the Turner Bequest. The notation suggests that the page was removed from the sketchbook, probably with some early exhibition at the National Gallery in mind. In the event, the drawing does not appear to have been shown.