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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Farnley Hall and Yorkshire c.1808-24 > Scarborough 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner From the South Cliff at Scarborough Looking South to White Nab c.1816-18

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘From the South Cliff at Scarborough Looking South to White Nab’ c.1816-18
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
From the South Cliff at Scarborough Looking South to White Nab c.1816–18
D11953
Turner Bequest CLI 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 116 x 182 mm
Watermarked ‘[FEL]LOWS | [181]1’
Inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink ‘2’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CLI 2’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch records the view from the south cliff at Scarborough, near the present bowling green at the south end of the esplanade, looking south to White Nab, with cliffs stretching towards Filey Brigg in the distance. A small building of unknown function is visible on the cliff below. The whole foreground was the site in 1993 of a major cliff slump that carried away the Halton Hall Hotel. The view northwards from more or less the same viewpoint is recorded in the following sketch in the sketchbook (D11954; Turner Bequest CLI 3).
This sketch is the first of a series extending over seven pages to D11959; Turner Bequest CLI 7, exploring viewpoints southwards from Scarborough. The same area is also explored in the Scarborough 1 sketchbook, probably on the same visit, if not the same excursion, and together the sketches culminated in a finished watercolour of Scarborough dated 1818 (private collection).1
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.360 no.529.
Verso:
Blank

David Hill
September 2008

How to cite

David Hill, ‘From the South Cliff at Scarborough Looking South to White Nab 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-from-the-south-cliff-at-scarborough-looking-south-to-white-r1146976, accessed 25 April 2024.