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

Here Turner has recorded aspects of Yarmouth in Norfolk. Drawing with the sketchbook turned vertically, the artist pictures its streets and harbour in four views. At the uppermost register one of the towers of the medieval town wall is depicted (see Tate D18214; Turner Bequest CCIX 30). The two rear views show shipping docked at Yarmouth harbour, possibly the South Quay. Turner has annotated the drawing with four rather illegible inscriptions transcribed in full above. For other sketches of Yarmouth in this book see Tate D18203–D18223; Turner Bequest CCIX 24a–34a. Turner’s sketches are associated with designs for both the England and Wales (Tate impression T04547) and East Coast engraving schemes, though the latter design, housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, was unpublished.1