Joseph Mallord William Turner

Rocks

1818

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

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Not on display

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Bass Rock and Edinburgh Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 99 × 159 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D13363
Turner Bequest CLXV 23

Catalogue entry

Finberg describes this as a drawing of ‘Islands’,1 and while it is plausible to suggest the shape of, for example the Island of Fidra off the coast of North Berwick, the shape of the objects are surely too jagged for islands. Rather these are probably just some of the many rocks or crags off the coast somewhere between North Berwick and Dunbar. Turner drew similar rocks on the previous sketchbook page (folio 22 verso; D13362; CLXV 22a).

Thomas Ardill
October 2007

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.479, CLXV 23.

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