Joseph Mallord William TurnerA Cloudy Sky 1805

Not listed or described by Finberg, who presumably never saw it as the recto (D05487; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 29) was then on national tour in the First Loan Collection.1 With the sketchbook inverted, Turner has drawn a cloudy sky similar to that which forms the backdrop of his picture The Victory Returning from Trafalgar, possibly shown at Turner’s Gallery in 1806 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut);2 see Introduction to the sketchbook for a discussion of the picture. The recto has a port view of Victory related to the picture, there is another on folio 18 (D05489; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 30) and a starboard view appears on folio 16 verso (D05486; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 28a). In fact the sky study, unique to the book, is the most likely confirmation of the relationship of these drawings to each other and to the picture.