Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Coast of Berwick-upon-Tweed

1831

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Abbotsford Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 113 × 185 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D25985
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 34 a

Catalogue entry

Across the current page and folio 35 (D25986; CCLXVII 35) are sketches of the Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed. The study of the lighthouse at the top of the page is recognisable as the lighthouse at the end of the pier or breakwater at Berwick. Beneath it is a view which seems to be looking downstream along the estuary. A group of figures in the foreground are shown pulling in a fishing net, represented by an oval of dotted lines. This scene was incorporated into the bottom right corner of Turner’s watercolour Berwick-upon-Tweed circa 1832 (whereabouts unknown).1 The sketch continues slightly on folio 35. At the bottom of the page is a similar scene, again showing figures and a boat on the coast.
For more information of Turner’s visit to Berwick, see folio 48 verso (D26009; CCLXVII 48a).

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.430 no.1092.

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