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

Finberg was uncertain about his identification of this drawing as Dunbar harbour,1 but if we consider the previous two pages in this sketchbook (folios 24, 24 verso; D13365, D13366; CLXV 24, 24a), both of Dunbar harbour, and other drawings of the rocks around the town (folios 22 verso, 23; D13362, D13363; CLXV 22a, 23), then there seems little doubt. Furthermore, in the foreground of the drawing at the bottom right of the page is the corner of what looks like a platform, but when it is compared to William Daniell’s aquatint of Dunbar, Haddingtonshire (Tate T02924), it can be seen to be the quayside with the same parapet in the foreground of Daniell’s work, although we face the opposite direction at the mouth of the harbour with the headlands behind.

Turner therefore apparently sketched all three of his views of Dunbar harbour from the same position on the quayside (folios 24, 24a and 25; D13365, D13366, D13367; CLXV 24, 24a, 25).