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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Farnley Hall and Yorkshire c.1808-24 > Scarborough 1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner From Scarborough Harbour, Looking South past the Lighthouse c.1816-18

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘From Scarborough Harbour, Looking South past the Lighthouse’ c.1816-18
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Recto:
From Scarborough Harbour, Looking South past the Lighthouse c.1816–18
D11942
Turner Bequest CL 23
Pencil on white wove paper, 117 x 180 mm
Watermarked ‘[BAR]NARD | [18]12’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Boy dabbling’ bottom left; ‘G and W’ at harbour mouth, and (almost illegibly) ‘White line of ...[?] over by cl..[?]’’ across the sky to the right
Inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink ‘23’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CL 23’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch records the view from the quay of Scarborough Harbour, looking south down the lighthouse jetty to the lighthouse. The ships seen against the light in the harbour to the left are perhaps reminiscent of some of the harbour paintings of the French seventeenth-century painter Claude Lorraine, of whom Turner was particularly fond. A small lightship appears in the right foreground and similar vessels appear in another sketch in the sequence (D11926; Turner Bequest CL 10) which appears to continue, more or less, the panorama to the right. In the distance, just to the right of the lightship, can be seen the triangular rock that appears in a number of other sketches (for example D11924; Turner Bequest CL 8).
The sketch was cited in the 1980 York exhibition catalogue in relation to a later watercolour of Scarborough (Tate D18142; Turner Bequest CCVIII I)1 engraved in 1826. However, the watercolour was taken from a completely different viewpoint in the south bay looking towards the harbour.
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.387 no.751.
Verso:
Blank, except for an inscription by ?John Ruskin in red ink bottom left ‘168 Invent’ (see notes to folio 3, D11945; Turner Bequest CL 26).

David Hill
September 2008

How to cite

David Hill, ‘From Scarborough Harbour, Looking South past the Lighthouse c.1816–18 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-from-scarborough-harbour-looking-south-past-the-lighthouse-r1146952, accessed 23 November 2024.