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

The paper paste-down affixed to the inside pouch of this sketchbook has been used for a number of rough sketches: a scene with hilly pasture and a small bridge; two figures in regional dress, one holding a rake of some kind; a woman with a broom and a sketch of her profile; and finally, an arched bridge traversing the banks of a town, inscribed with what appears to be ‘Mesieres’ underneath it (Mézières). Turner has also inscribed the place name ‘Rogers de Bahar’ under the first of the sketches, referring to the Roche à Bayard, a giant monolith on the banks of the Meuse at Dinant, depicted on the folio opposite (Tate D28167; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 1). The inscription beneath, ‘Borass des Dou’, does not appear to relate to any existing site or municipality.

In a 1981 article, the Turner scholar Eric Shanes proposed that the figure sketches found here relate to Turner’s watercolour Oxford, from North Hiskey of 1834–40.1 He also writes that this book and the Moselle and Oxford sketchbook (Turner Bequest CCLXXXIX) were used by the artist during a visit to print seller James Ryman in the summer of 1834.2