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

These finely rendered sketches likely depict the coastline at Happisburgh, northeast Norfolk. In the uppermost view Turner records the cliffs from a vantage point on the beach below, his prospect including some of the same Dutch-gabled buildings shown in the lowermost sketch (see also Tate D18228, D18230–D18233; Turner Bequest CCIX 37, 38–39a).1 The central sketch is of a distant headland with vessels sailing close to the shore. Turner has inscribed the word ‘Sand’ twice, at centre left and towards bottom right.

Turner produced a vignette design of Happisburgh, entitled Hasboro Sands (Happisburgh is pronounced ‘Haysborough’), for the East Coast publication, though it was never engraved (see general introduction).2