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

In his diary entry of 10 August 1831, Robert Cadell writes about Turner making a sketch of ‘Berwick the old Castle, the Bridge and sea’.1 Gerald Finley has identified a number of sketches that fit this description, including the drawing across the present page and folio 59 verso (D26031; CCLXVII 61a).2 This was made a short distance from the spot where Turner took his preliminary sketch (folios 48 verso–49; D26009–D26010; CCLXVII 48a–49) for his watercolour Berwick-upon-Tweed circa 1832 (whereabouts unknown).3

The view, drawn with the sketchbook inverted, was therefore taken from the cliff-edge on the north bank of the Tweed to the west of the castle near where the Royal Border Bridge now stands; it looks east along the Tweed with Berwick Bridge and the estuary beyond. Berwick Castle stands at the top of the cliffs with its defensive ‘white wall’ running down to the water, and beyond it to the right is the tower of the Town Hall in Mary Gate. Part of Tweedmouth and Spittal, at the mouth of the river, are shown on folio 59 verso.