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

These roughly rendered prospects, heretofore unidentified, depict Orford in Suffolk. They have been rendered with the sketchbook turned upside down. In the principal sketch, running across the centre of the page, Turner records a scene at Orford Haven. Boats are docked on the Alde, the river which flows between Orfordness, a long shingle spit, and the North Sea. The keep of the twelfth-century Orford Castle and St Bartholomew’s Church are shown in profile towards right. There is a separate jotting above the view of Orford which shows buildings and windmills on the coast.

See also Tate D18159, D18237–D18238, D18304–D18305; Turner Bequest CCIX 1, 41a–42, 86a–87, the vignette drawing of ‘Orford Castle and Church’ at Indianapolis Museum of Art, the finished watercolour entitled Orford, Suffolk produced for Charles Heath’s England and Wales series (Tate impression T06077) and the unpublished ‘Orfordness’ print engraved by JC Allen (Tate impression T06614).1