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 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View Along the East Lothian Coast with Seacliff House 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View Along the East Lothian Coast with Seacliff House’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
View Along the East Lothian Coast with Seacliff House 1818
D13596
Turner Bequest CLXVII 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ?‘Clouths | w[...]’ centre right; ‘Grey’ bottom left
Inscribed in blue ink ‘7’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXVII 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Having sketched Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from the cliffs to the south-east (folios 5 verso–6; D13593–D13594; CLXVII 5a, 6) Turner turned around 180 degrees to make this view along the East Lothian coast with Seacliff House in the foreground. The house was built in 1750, but altered in 1841 and severely damaged by fire in 1907; these alterations in its appearance are perhaps what lead Finberg to misidentify it as another view of Tantallon Castle.1
Beyond the house we look along the coast where several buildings can be seen in the distance (folio 6 verso; D13595; CLXVII 6a); this is the hamlet of Scoughall. The sketch continues at the right on folio 6 verso where the edge of the cliff, the rocks and sea beneath are visible. There is another view of Seacliff House on folios 9 verso–10 (D13600–D13601; CLXVII 8c, 9), and from beneath on folio 8 (D13597; CLXVII 8).
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.485, CLXVII 7a.
Verso:
Blank

Thomas Ardill
February 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘View Along the East Lothian Coast with Seacliff House 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2008, 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-view-along-the-east-lothian-coast-with-seacliff-house-r1132144, accessed 16 April 2024.