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

The page was used both horizontally and vertically for two separate subjects. Towards the outer edge is a valley scene with a church spire below what appears to be a substantial castle, or perhaps a monastery, on the slopes beyond. Compare the church in the upper view on the verso (D32559). Separated by a faint pencil line to its left, and at right-angles, is a view of a tower on a hill, again likely belonging to a castle, possibly ruined; the skyline to its left is continued a little way onto folio 8 verso opposite (D32557; CCCXXII 9a). Both sketches are labelled, presumably with place names, but in such haste that only occasional letters are legible as tentatively transcribed here, and it is unclear which was drawn first.

This sketchbook covers Turner’s homeward route from Augsburg north-westwards to Rotterdam (see under folios 1 verso and 14 recto respectively; D32543, D32568; CCCXXII 2a, 15). As set out in the Introduction, although his general itinerary is clear from many identified subjects as he travelled down the River Rhine, they were are not drawn in a single sequence, making the less distinctive landscapes, towns and river scenes between them difficult to place.