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

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. The subject, with masts and the outlines of a large hull under construction or repair, has been identified by Ian Warrell as a shipyard on the Canale di San Marco, likely along the waterfront east of the Riva degli Schiavoni, between the Ponte della Veneta Marina and the Giardini Pubblici, where the Riva dei Sette Martiri now runs.1

The present sketch falls within what was perhaps a single waterborne excursion (folios 10 verso–24 recto; D31945–D31972) out towards the gardens, at the eastern end of Venice, 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 the city along the Canale della Giudecca. For this sketchbook’s somewhat convoluted general sequence, see its Introduction.