Joseph Mallord William Turner

This sketch records the view from the south cliff at Scarborough, near the present bowling green at the south end of the esplanade, looking south to White Nab, with cliffs stretching towards Filey Brigg in the distance. A small building of unknown function is visible on the cliff below. The whole foreground was the site in 1993 of a major cliff slump that carried away the Halton Hall Hotel. The view northwards from more or less the same viewpoint is recorded in the following sketch in the sketchbook (D11954; Turner Bequest CLI 3).

This sketch is the first of a series extending over seven pages to D11959; Turner Bequest CLI 7, exploring viewpoints southwards from Scarborough. The same area is also explored in the Scarborough 1 sketchbook, probably on the same visit, if not the same excursion, and together the sketches culminated in a finished watercolour of Scarborough dated 1818 (private collection).1

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