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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Flamborough Head, Yorkshire from the Sea 1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Flamborough Head, Yorkshire from the Sea’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 71 Recto:
Flamborough Head, Yorkshire from the Sea 1834
D26229
Turner Bequest CCLXVIII 71
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 181 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘71’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVIII – 71’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These three sketches of a coastal headland belong to a sequence of coastal sketches across folios 70 verso–77 verso (D26228–D26242). Only one of the sketches has been firmly identified as a view of Whitby, but it is likely that the other sketches, made so close in the sketchbook, are also of the North Yorkshire coast.
The headland depicted here is probably Flamborough Head, as seen from the sea to the north. On the cliff are two lighthouses: the 1806 lighthouse to the left (and in the separate sketch at the top left) and the 1674 lighthouse tower to the right. Turner sketched Flamborough Head on his sea journey north to Edinburgh in 1822 (Tate D17513; Turner Bequest CC 3a). This sketch is further evidence that Turner returned from Edinburgh by sea down the east coast in 1834.
There is a brown stain at the bottom right of the page.

Thomas Ardill
January 2011

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Flamborough Head, Yorkshire from the Sea 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2011, 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-flamborough-head-yorkshire-from-the-sea-r1136157, accessed 27 September 2024.