Views of Robin Hood’s Bay, Whitby, and Bamburgh Castle

1822

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: King’s Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 187 x 114 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D17662
Turner Bequest CC 87

Catalogue entry

With the sketchbook turned to the left are various views along the North Yorkshire coast, made as Turner travelled south by sea from Edinburgh to London (see folio 78; D17644). The top three are, as the inscription indicates, around ‘Robin Hood’s Bay’. The top sketch shows the coast from the town at the left to the headland of Ness Point at the right. Beneath this are two further sketches of the cliffs nearby. The second sketch includes a sailing boat travelling south along the coast, a small, dark shape at the bottom that may be a bird taking off or landing on the water (see folio 88; D18664), and an inscription on the cliffs that may read ‘grass.’

The forth and fifth sketches down the page are both of ‘Whitby’ from the east. St Hilda’s Abbey is shown in the lower sketch and both drawings shows the stack of Saltwick Nabb just to the east of the town. At the bottom of the page is a view of Bamburgh Castle from the north-west as in folio 86 (D17660).

A small tear at the top right of the page has been repaired.

Thomas Ardill
August 2008

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