Joseph Mallord William Turner

Studies of Yarmouth

c.1824

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 115 × 118 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D18176
Turner Bequest CCIX 11

Catalogue entry

These swiftly rendered sketches record aspects of Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast. Yarmouth harbour was home to the North Sea division of the Royal Navy at the time of Turner’s visit.1 Windmills and post mills feature in each view, in addition to quayside buildings, houses, warehouses for the fisheries, and lastly St Nicholas’ Church pictured towards bottom right.

This drawing and others in the sketchbook (Tate D18178, D18212–D18214, D18217–D18221, D18223; Turner Bequest CCIX 12, 29–30, 31a–33a, 34a) were developed into a finished watercolour of Yarmouth engraved by William Miller in 1829 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales series (see Tate impression T04547).2 Turner also produced a watercolour of Yarmouth Sands for the East Coast scheme which was never engraved (see general introduction to this sketchbook.3

Alice Rylance-Watson
January 2015

Shanes, Joll, and Warrell 2000, p.202 no.88.

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.394 no.810.

Wilton 1979, p.405 no.904.

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