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

These sketches were taken with the sketchbook turned upside down. They depict the coast at Yarmouth, Norfolk. At the uppermost register Turner records various buildings including a viewing platform raised on wooden stilts; the same structure is shown on Tate D18187; Turner Bequest CCIX 16a. He has annotated the drawings with inscriptions including colour notes (Blue B[...]’, ‘Black S[...]’ and ‘Black W C[...]’) and the word ‘signal’. The lower most sketch is a distant prospect of Yarmouth, with St Nicholas’ Church and the Nelson Monument at left surrounded by windmills (see Tate D18212; Turner Bequest CCIX 29). A small section of the view on the folio opposite (Tate D18200; Turner CCIX 23) is continued on this page at centre.

These drawings and others in the sketchbook (Tate D18176–D18179, D18212–D18214, D18217–D18221, D18223; Turner Bequest CCIX 11–12a, 29–30, 31a–33a, 34a) were developed into a finished watercolour of Yarmouth produced for the England and Wales series and engraved in 1829 (see Tate impression T04547).1 Turner also produced a watercolour of Yarmouth Sands for the East Coast scheme which was never engraved (see general introduction to this sketchbook.2