Scarborough

This volume of works on paper consists of twelve mezzotints created by Thomas Goff Lupton (1791 – 1873) after drawings by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 – 1851), an artist known for his Romantic landscapes and focus on maritime subjects. The mezzotints depict twelve English harbours and showcase Turner's imaginative representation of landscapes, turbulent seas, and local activities. Of significance to Te Papa's collection is Turner's influence on nineteenth-century European landscape painting and the early landscape traditions of New Zealand, which in turn shaped perceptions of national identity for a newly formed nation. Thomas Goff Lupton, the engraver and a member of the Royal Academy, was known for his advancements in mezzotint engraving, particularly his innovation of steel plates which increased efficiencies in print production in the Industrial age.

The volume, titled Turner's Harbours of England - Plates, is based on an 1856 publication called The Harbours of England by Turner and Ruskin, featuring mezzotints of Turner's original watercolours. The project was initially conceived as The Ports of England a volume of twenty-five Turner drawings for serial publication. The project was stalled and later resumed by Lupton after Turner’s death under a new title, with twelve of Turner's drawings of harbours accompanied by text from John Ruskin, a prominent art critic and Turner enthusiast.

Scarborough is an ancient settlement on the North Sea dating back to the Bronze Age. The view is from the sandy beach of the south bay looking toward the town, the site of the medieval settlement, which extends up the hill to Saint Mary’s Church which dates to the thirteenth century. The medieval Scarborough Castle is seen on top of the limestone hill, rendered by Turner a dramatic promontory dropping into the North Sea.

This is the most serene of Turner’s Harbours of England scenes. Under a clear sky, the sea is calm and all the ships’ sails are down. People work from the coast, wading into the shallow water to wash and find shrimp. Men with horses unload ships. A young woman stands at the front of the composition with her net, glancing back at her small dog who stays with her basket. Turner glorifies a coastal scene of everyday life and basic labour with historic and topographical grandeur.

John Barrell discusses representation of the rural poor in his book "The Dark Side of the Landscape" (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1980). He explains that, in eighteenth century landscape tradition, "The rich must be illuminated and the poor and theirs be left in the shadows on ‘the dark side of the landscape.’" This rule of composition served to mark differences in status between the rich and the poor without making the rich uncomfortable in their good fortune. When the rural poor were depicted, it was in ways which did not challenge viewers; the ‘good’ poor were portrayed with dignity, happy in their labours or seen in terms of a "relaxed and idle Pastoral". Barrell offers evidence of Turner’s independence in his depictions of the rural poor in ways that did not comply with these contemporary ideals. The young woman in the foreground of Scarborough is an example of Turner’s treatment of the rural poor. She is neither toiling nor relaxing, and composed in a way that she cannot be ignored as part of the landscape.