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

This subject of this sketch is uncertain. It may show the southern half of the Bass Rock as seen from the east, thereby completing the drawing on the previous page (D13346; CLXV 13a), although the two pages are above and below each other, not side by side. The sketch is too rough to make this identification certain, especially as the whole of the island is not shown, but the page’s position in the book makes it likely. Alternatively, it could show a cliff edge on the coast with rocks sticking out of the sea on the right, such as the headland below and to the north of Tantallon Castle, or even, the promontory of St Abb’s Head, the rocks around which Turner sketched at the beginning of this sketchbook (folio 2; D13324; CLXV 2).