Scarborough
Engraver Thomas Goff Lupton British
After Joseph Mallord William Turner British
Not on view
Lupton commissioned Turner in 1825 to produce a set of twenty-five marine watercolors that he intended to issue himself as a series of prints in twelve parts (including a title-page). The painter had previously worked with Lupton in collaboration with the publisher William Bernard Cooke for the "Rivers of England" series in 1822–26. Here in "Scarborough" the magnificent twelfth-century castle and precipitous cliffs dominate the view. The foreground shows the town's extremely shallow harbour, where at low tide boats were beached and the sand exposed for shrimpers. Turner's watercolor was retained by the artist and is now at Tate Britain, London. This print came from the first instalment issued in 1826, but soon the project got into difficulties and was abandoned before it was complete. It was eventually published—comprising just twelve prints—in 1856 after Turner's death under the new title "The Harbours of England," which is also in the Met's collection (51.648.2).
