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

This small but diverse grouping of drawings and ‘colour beginnings’ largely comprises technically varied studies which may be related with varying degrees of certainty (for example Tate D34924; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 427) or conjecture (Tate D25391; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 268) to known oils painted by Turner over a long period of his middle and late career. They are gathered in one place to prevent an already tentative connection becoming fragmentary. Turner’s use of ‘colour beginnings’ in relation to finished watercolours for engraving projects is well-established and extensive; see for example the ‘England and Wales Colour Studies c.1825–39’ section of this catalogue. The scale of his use of separate drawings or watercolours (as opposed to referring to his sketchbooks) in the preparatory stages of paintings remains a matter for speculation. Also included here is what appears to be a study of a horse and figures, perhaps for a historical composition or ...