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

Here Turner has produced an array of sketches recording what appears to be the Suffolk North Sea coast. With the book turned upside down Turner depicts a harbour at right. An imposing eighteenth-century building with rustication overlooks the port from the street. Below this sketch is a small jotting of a town and a marina which has been inscribed ‘Blyth Haven Ferry’. The artist may be referring to the rowing boat ferry service which crosses the estuary mouth of the Blyth River from Walbersick to Southwold (see also Tate D18259; Turner Bequest CCIX 52a). With the sketchbook turned vertically, a separate jotting of a church can be seen, though the paper has darkened and been smudged with pencil offset over time.

Further drawings have been made with the sketchbook orientated in accordance with the foliation. There is a cursory sketch of a church, a coastal view, and a prospect of the coastline with what may be Lowestoft lighthouse and the village of Corton beyond. This wide view continues onto the pastedown opposite (Tate D41439). Turner has inscribed ‘Carton’ or ‘Corton’ above it, along with a rather illegible word which may read ‘Lst’: a possible shortening of Lowestoft.