Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851)
Scarborough, ca.1825
For The Ports of England
Watercolor and graphite on paper
6 3/16 x 8 7/8 in. (15.7 x 22.5 cm)
Tate; Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
© Tate, London 2016
Of this view of Scarborough, the critic John Ruskin wrote, “nothing is so perfectly calm as Turner’s calmness; and I know very few better examples of this calmness than the place before us.” In the foreground, a woman glancing back at her dog draws us in. The presence of the twelfth-century Scarborough Castle places this fleeting moment within the context of time.