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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Dunbar Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Looking along a Stretch of Coast with High Cliffs: Moonlight 1801

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Looking along a Stretch of Coast with High Cliffs: Moonlight’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Verso:
Looking along a Stretch of Coast with High Cliffs: Moonlight 1801
D02616
Turner Bequest LIV 2a
Pencil, chalk and scraping-out on white wove paper prepared with a mauve-pink ground, 115 x 164 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is continued on folio 3 recto opposite (D02617). The uneven application of the ground on this and the next page renders an indistinct subject even more obscure; the indication of stones at the bottom of the composition suggests a beach scene, and this is confirmed by the perspective of cliffs and moonlight reflections on the other page. The subject may be the coast of Yorkshire near Whitby. Compare coastal studies in the 1801 Guisborough Shore sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest LII).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Looking along a Stretch of Coast with High Cliffs: Moonlight 1801 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-looking-along-a-stretch-of-coast-with-high-cliffs-moonlight-r1178802, accessed 26 April 2024.