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

Seven small sailing boats are drawn over two pages with hills and clouds in the distance (folios 10 verso–11; D13468–D13469). The background suggest that these are all different vessels, sailing close to each other in the same direction as if racing or travelling in formation. However, there is likely to be a degree of invention here with just one or a few vessels depicted several times in different positions. Only one of the boats includes a crew, indicated in silhouette.

Above the boats the coastline can be seen with distant hills rising above and merging with clouds; these may be the Grampians to the north, or Pentland Hills to the south of the Firth of Forth, or the coastline of the River Tyne, which Turner also sketched in this book (see folio 13; D13473). There is a thumbnail sketch to the left of this page, drawn with the book turned to the right, of a coastline and hills with a castle on the right, however the drawing is too slight to make identification possible.