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 ?The Bass Rock 1818

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Bass Rock’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 14 Verso:
?The Bass Rock 1818
D13348
Turner Bequest CLXV 14a
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing, simply titled ‘rocks’ by Finberg,1 may, like the five previous drawing in the sketchbook, shows the Bass Rock off the North Berwick coast (folios 11 verso–14; D13342–D13347; CLXV 11a–14). Turner represents the jagged structure of the rock with sharp pencil lines, that, while not closely resembling the effect achieved, captures the same violent mood of his 1826 watercolour of the subject (Bass Rock, watercolour, circa 1824, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight).2

Thomas Ardill
October 2007

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.479, CLXV 14a.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.426 no.1069.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘?The Bass Rock 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-the-bass-rock-r1131890, accessed 24 April 2024.