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

There are two instances of leaves noted as by Finberg as ‘torn out’,3 or possibly roughly cut out, between folios 6 verso and 7 recto (D21863–D21864) and folios 39 verso and 40 recto (D21920–D21921), leaving irregular stubs with slight pencil marks as discussed in the adjacent entries; they are not numbered or foliated, but indicate that the page block would have originally comprised at least seventy leaves in addition to the paste-downs.

Finberg did not transcribe any descriptive notes from a separate plain wrapper of the sort supplied by John Ruskin when he first examined the sketchbooks in detail (mostly since lost), or suggest that Ruskin had disturbed the book by extracting or separating any of the leaves for display, as often happened with larger ones.4 However, there has been some intrusive repair work or rebinding inside the front and back covers (D41238, D41239). The free endpapers at the beginning and end of the sketchbook appear to be modern interventions, likely inserted after the transfer of works to the British Museum following the Tate Gallery flood of 1928, and were not included in Finberg’s Inventory of the Turner Bequest; nor are they foliated in the present catalogue. There is also a strong possibility that the covers were rebound the wrong way around at that time, with D41238 having originally been the back cover in relation to the foliated sequence, opposite D21972 (CCXXXVII 66a), and D41239 the front, opposite D21852 (CCXXXVII 1).

This theory is supported by diagonal markings from the folds of the leather overlaps beneath the corners of the paste-downs, which correspond with offsetting on the pages apparently originally bound opposite; this is especially notable when comparing D41238 with D21972. As discussed in their individual entries, Turner’s use of these pages and paste-downs for various scrawled notes and slight sketches would appear to make more sense when considered in this revised order, disregarding the blank free endpapers. Since Tate now focuses on conservation of Turner’s sketchbooks rather than invasive restoration, the minor anomalies discussed here will endure.

While the book’s haphazardly ordered contents do not offer a clear chronological progression, it is possible the itinerary runs broadly from back to front as since numbered rather than vice versa. The dominant groupings of Shoreham, Brighton and Petworth fall near the back, whereas views of Tivoli fall near the middle. However, this tentative order is not consistent, as there are also clusters of works depicting Brighton and Shoreham near the start, whereas the numerous inscriptions are difficult to date.