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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of Cliffs Around St Abbs 1822

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
Sketches of Cliffs Around St Abbs 1822
D17650
Turner Bequest CC 81
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 114 mm
Stamped in black ‘CC 81’ top right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These four sketches of cliffs on the coast, made with the sketchbook turned to the left, are probably of St Abbs Head, a headland just to the north of the village of St Abbs, seen here from the west. A sketch from further away of a similar-looking coastline on folio 81 verso (D17651) is inscribed ‘St Abbs Head’, and the current sketches follow drawings of the cliffs near Fast Castle (folio 80 verso; D17649), which is nearby. The step-shaped cliff and the right of the middle two sketches also fit the shape of a headland near the village. The third sketch down includes three figures in a small sailing vessel. Considering that St Abbs is a fishing village, they may be casting their nets.
Turner made a sketch of St Abbs from the north-east in the Bass Rock and Edinburgh sketchbook in 1818 (Tate D13324; Turner Bequest CLXV 2).

Thomas Ardill
August 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sketches of Cliffs Around St Abbs 1822 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-sketches-of-cliffs-around-st-abbs-r1132991, accessed 29 March 2024.