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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the upper half of the page with a rough outline of a hilltop town. The location remains to be identified; Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest tentatively interprets the upper inscription ‘Sartoza’ as the Tuscan town of Sarteano, near Chiusi.1 However, this deviates by quite some way from the route Turner likely followed from Siena to Radicofani, much of which aligns with the traditional Via Francigena pilgrimage route to Rome.2

The lower half of the page contains two minor studies enclosed in rectangular frames. Executed following the sketchbook’s foliation, they appear at a right-angle to the vista above. The central study, annotated ‘Ro’, appears to depict a seated figure, whereas the study to the right is a street view with an inscription that may read ‘[?Crops]’.