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

With the page turned horizontally, three bands of rapid studies appear to show different aspects of the same urban skyline, with slight hints of a landscape setting. The subject is possibly Bassano del Grappa, above the Brenta Valley; see under folio 8 recto (D31611), a positively identified view within the city. As set out in the sketchbook’s Introduction, although Turner’s overall itinerary is clear from its many identified sketches, they were are not drawn in a single sequence, making those between them difficult to place, and the present subject may be elsewhere. Compare a similar study among others on the verso (D31614).