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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ruins 1818

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Verso:
Ruins 1818
D13388
Turner Bequest CLXV 38a
Pencil on white laid paper, 99 x 159 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rather than just ‘a headland’ as Finberg suggests,1 this sketch clearly shows a man-made structure on a promontory or headland that descends into the sea at the left. The shape of the structures – step-like with two tower shapes in the middle – closely resembles the sketch on folio 9 verso (D13338; CLXV 9a) which has been identified as either the ruins of Dunbar Castle, or the fortifications on Bass Rock. Either is possible, although the height of the rock to the right on this sketch might be too high to be Dunbar, in which case Bass Rock, or else an unidentified coastal ruin, is more likely.

Thomas Ardill
October 2007

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.479, CLXV 38a.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Ruins 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-ruins-r1131930, accessed 20 September 2024.