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

At the centre of this page is a rough sketch of a church building or town hall, executed with the sketchbook turned horizontally. The subject remains to be identified. At the top and bottom of this front paste-down, as foliated, are two sets of dates and places written by Turner, one in pencil and one in ink. In his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, Finberg provided the following transcription:1

These two sets of dates and places broadly correspond with Turner’s journey from Rome to Milan, then onwards from Milan to Lyon. However, as noted by the geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot, they raise several questions regarding the precise itinerary.2 For example, it is difficult to know Turner’s date of departure for Milan, or his arrival date in Lyon. The section in ink was apparently written on his arrival in Milan, since it describes the snow Turner encountered throughout his journey. Dates are lacking for the section in pencil, potentially because Turner had not yet undertaken this leg, making it harder to reconstruct an accurate itinerary. See the introduction for further commentary on Turner’s route for this late phase of his tour.