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

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, across the middle of the page are studies of a large warship, apparently with the masts of other vessels beyond, and a view of three yachts, perhaps racing. Above them is a coastal profile, with another below, the other way up; these seem to show different aspects of the same view, and the juxtaposition of towers near the centre in both cases suggests Portsmouth, Hampshire, seen from Spithead with Gosport on the left, as recorded in clearer drawings in the London Bridge and Portsmouth sketchbook, probably of 1824 (for example Tate D17922; Turner Bequest CCVI 5a).

Portsmouth and Gosport are on the coast of the mainland about four miles across the Solent from the Isle of Wight. For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events on the island at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the sketchbook Introduction.