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

With the sketchbook inverted is a drawing of King George IV’s royal squadron with what Gerald Finley has identified as the King’s yacht, the Royal George. The three-masted vessel is bedecked with flags and bunting and a dark shape on one of its shrouds may be a sailor climbing the rigging. There are several smaller vessels around the yacht which are either vessels hired by people to get a closer look at the King, visiting guests such as Robert Peel and Sir Walter Scott, or the barges of the King and his company leaving the fleet to land at Leith. This final interpretation is the most compelling if the sketch is compared to folio 72 verso (D17634), which appears to depict the same vessel with the Royal George, and has been identified as probably showing the King’s barge.

The boat at the right with what appears to be a thicker, darker mast may in fact be one of the two steam vessels, the James Watt or the Comet, which formed part of the royal squadron. Folio 35 (D17562) contains Turner’s first known depiction of a steamboat; for further sketches of the Royal George see folio 4 (D17562), and for more information on his sketches of the royal squadron see folio 64 (D17618).