J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Bass Rock and Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Crags off Dunbar 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Crags off Dunbar’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Verso:
Crags off Dunbar 1818
D13352
Turner Bequest CLXV 16a
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘w stacks’ top centre-left and ‘long stacks’ centre-right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rather than islands, as Finberg suggests, these are the rocks, or ‘craigs’, that stick out of the water just off the coast at Dunbar. Turner has inscribed these rocks as ‘w[est] stacks’ and ‘long stacks’, perhaps referring to the area of rocks called ‘Long Craigs’ just west of Dunbar. In fact, these are not ‘stacks’, a term that describes the column of rock left when a natural arch collapses, but igneous crags, though there are some stacks off the coast nearby. Further examples are observed on the next page of this sketchbook (folio 17; D13352; CLXV 17).

Thomas Ardill
October 2007

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Crags off Dunbar 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2007, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-crags-off-dunbar-r1131894, accessed 04 April 2026.