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

The page’s basic 1909 Inventory title (‘Sailing vessel’)1 title was amended by Ian Warrell to ‘A Boat in Front of San Giorgio, with the Island of La Grazie in the Distance on the Left’ in 2003, in connection with his concurrent Turner and Venice exhibition at Tate Britain.2 The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally, and focuses on a passing trabaccolo sailing boat, as identified by Warrell,3 framed by faint indications of the light-house at the north-eastern point of the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore on the right4 (shown clearly on folio 11 verso opposite; D31947), and the small island of La Grazia (otherwise Santa Maria della Grazia) in the Lagoon beyond to its south-west (see also folio 19 recto; D31962); this makes the viewpoint the eastern reaches of the Canale di San Marco, as for adjacent pages. For other studies in this sketchbook showing local shipping in isolation or particularly prominently in topographical views of the city, see under folio 2 verso (D31931).5

The present drawing falls within what was perhaps a single waterborne excursion (folios 10 verso–24 recto; D31945–D31972) out towards the Giardini Pubblici and then westwards across the Lagoon along the southern shores of the islands of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Giudecca, before turning back for the Bacino at the heart of Venice along the Canale della Giudecca. For this sketchbook’s general sequence, including Hardy George’s broad overview,6 see its Introduction.