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

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan have suggested that the two sketches of a loch and mountains on this page may be of Loch Ard.1 The larger sketch, as on folios 3 verso and 4 (D26677, D26682; CCLXXII 6, 8), may be a view looking west across the loch from the east, while the boxed-off sketch at the bottom right of the page may be a more southerly view across the water with mountains reflected in it. The foreground of the boxed-off sketch includes a small building, which may be one of the boathouses along the northern shore of the loch which are marked on the Ordnance Survey map. The larger sketch may feature the same building, or perhaps it is a jetty. For references to further sketches of Loch Ard, see folio 3 verso.

Eric Shanes has compared the composition of the larger sketch on this page to a watercolour beginning of a mountainous bay: Tate D25252 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 130).2 While there is certainly a compositional similarity, the watercolour appears to show a single mountain, while the sketch depicts a range of hills that continue beyond the page to the left.