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

D25516–D25518, D34018

Turner Bequest CCLXIII a 1–3, CCCXLI 299

This subsection comprises four slight pencil studies for two related paintings: The Seat of William Moffatt Esq., at Mortlake. Early (Summer’s) Morning, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826 (Frick Collection, New York);1 and Mortlake Terrace, the Seat of William Moffatt, Esq. Summer’s Evening, shown at the same venue the following year (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC).2 They appear to be supplementary or complementary to the studies in the Mortlake and Pulborough sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCXIII), apparently made at Mortlake, beside the River Thames up-river from central London, in 1825.

D34018 is watermarked ‘1826’, and since these four sketches are consistent in style and format, and relate to both the 1826 and 1827 paintings, they are likely to have been made together on a return visit to Mortlake some time early in 1826, before Early (Summer’s) Morning was completed.