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

Turner’s earliest dated drawing is the 1787 view of Nuneham Courtenay (Tate D00002; Turner Bequest I B). Other works can be grouped round this, on the evidence of style. Some of the works in this group are copies from prints, forming the normal mode of self-tuition for any young artist of the time. The later drawings here display a steadily strengthening grasp of technique and colouring, serving the clearly identified goals of Turner’s aim of becoming a topographical watercolourist. The Oxford sketchbook was probably in use during a stay with Turner’s uncle, Joseph Mallord William Marshall, at Sunningwell, south of Oxford, in 1789, though some subjects indicate that it was also used nearer to London, and in London itself. The drawings and sketchbook are discussed at greater length in the introductions to the respective subsections.