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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of Scarborough Castle from the South-West c.1816-18

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Distant View of Scarborough Castle from the South-West c.1816–18
D11940
Turner Bequest CL 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 117 x 180 mm
Watermarked ‘R BAR[NARD] | 18[12]’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Path with cattl[e]’ bottom left and ‘Road’ bottom right
Faintly inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink (illegible), bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CL 21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint in this sketch is the Malton and York road above the Weaponness Valley, a half mile or so south-west of the present railway station and north of Scarborough Mere. Turner sketched almost exactly the same view (with slightly more clarity of arrangement) in the Devonshire Rivers 3, Yorkshire, Wharfedale sketchbook (Tate D09866; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 65) possibly on the same expedition, and with almost exactly the same inscriptions. Another sketch in the present sketchbook (D11931; Turner Bequest CL 14) records a view nearby, and was probably made in sequence. Turner also recorded almost exactly the same view in the Scarborough 2 sketchbook (Tate D11972; Turner Bequest CLI 18), the first of a sequence in that sketchbook exploring the valley downstream to the shore of the south bay.
A tear at the right edge of this sheet has been repaired.
Verso:
Blank

David Hill
September 2008

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Distant View of Scarborough Castle from the South-West c.1816–18 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-distant-view-of-scarborough-castle-from-the-south-west-r1146957, accessed 29 March 2024.