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

Here Turner records aspects of Orford on the Suffolk North Sea coast. At rear the twelfth-century Orford Castle is depicted; it is shown again at centre, to the right of St Bartholomew’s Church. Turner has inscribed ‘Orford’ at centre right. At the upper register is a series of coastal views; a distant Orfordness lighthouse is included in one of the prospects. The uppermost sketch is a beach scene with houses atop low cliffs overlooking the shore; ‘Thorpe’ is inscribed below one of the buildings. This must refer to Thorpeness, a village which lies to the north of Orford and Aldebrugh on the North Sea coast.

These sketches and others (Tate D18304–D18308; Turner Bequest CCIX 86a–88a) are associated with a vignette watercolour of Orford Haven produced in around 1827 for the East Coast series (see general introduction) and the highly finished watercolour Orford, Suffolk of the same date intended for the England and Wales print publication project.1