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

With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner has inscribed the recipe for a cure on the left-hand side this page. It reads:

This list of ingredients may be a continuation of the cure inscribed onto the facing inside back cover of the sketchbook (D41076), or an alternative treatment. As outlined in the entry for D41076, Turner’s interest in medicinal recipes in the early 1830s may have stemmed from some chronic ailment or more general concerns about Europe’s burgeoning cholera epidemic.

Turner’s note at the top of the page identifies the coastal land-masses sketched at the centre as views of Alderney Island in the English Channel. These views are inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated. Another inscription under the extremely slight sketch of a valley in the top right-hand corner situates the view at Caudebec-en-Caux on the Normandy banks of the Seine. For the frequent recurrence of this subject in the sketchbook, see the listing in the entry for folio 17 recto (D23550; CCLII 17).

Technical notes:

John Ruskin’s red ink inscription ‘92’ on folio 92 recto (D23697; Turner Bequest CCLII 92) has bled through onto the top right-hand corner of this page.

An editorial error in A.J. Finberg’s 1909 Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest omitted the Turner Bequest number for this folio, which would have read ‘CCLIIa’.1 It has since been assigned the number ‘CCLIIv’ so does not conform to the ‘a’ suffix used elsewhere in the sketchbook for the versos of folios.