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

There are similar panoramic views on folios 10 verso–11 recto, 11 verso–12 recto and 12 verso–13 recto (D12138–D12139, D12140–D12141, D12142–D12143). Although the topography is less specific, the double-page drawing, inverted relative to the foliation, here and across folio 13 verso opposite (D12144) may relate to the classic wooded view west up the Thames below Richmond Hill seen in a number of Turner’s works, most notably his large painting England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent’s Birthday, exhibited in 1819 (Tate N00502).1 For 1818 as the likely date of the drawing, see under D12138.

Technical notes:

Finberg notes a leaf ‘torn out between pp.13a–14’, i.e. the present page and D12144. The overall landscape is continuous across the two, with a prominent, irregularly torn and partly folded stub remaining between them; the face adjoining the present page is drawn on, forming a continuum and indicating that most of that leaf was missing before the drawing was made. The stub itself has not been accessioned.

There seems to be no sign of John Ruskin’s usual red ink foliation; there are such numbers on most of the later pages (see the Introduction to the sketchbook).

Verso:

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