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

The Bristol and Malmesbury sketchbook, which Turner used while staying with friends of his father’s, the family of John Narraway, in Bristol in 1791, is filled with carefully drawn, sometimes highly finished, views in pencil and watercolour, intended as models for finished compositions. He spent so much time drawing along the cliffs of the Avon Gorge that he acquired the nickname ‘The Prince of the Rocks’. This section also includes those finished drawings which were not sold or given away, together with further studies. The sketchbook and the related works are discussed further in the introductions to the respective subsections.