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

For Mossdale Head, Wensleydale, see folio 31 verso (D11568; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 27a). This sketch is taken from close by the left side of the lower falls. The same falls are seen from a greater distance on folio 32 verso (D40861) and the upper falls, here glimpsed at the top left, are drawn from a closer viewpoint on folios 38 recto–37 verso (D11549–D11550; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 16–17). The present writer dates Turner’s sketches at Mossdale to Saturday 27 July 1816.

Turner’s inscription of ‘Colton Hall Fall’ is a mistake. The same inscription appears on a sketch of Colby Fall near Askrigg in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11284; Turner Bequest CXLV 142a). The present subject is certainly Mossdale, a quite different subject. Turner must have written the note some time after the sketch was made.

As now bound this page is mistakenly presented as a double-page spread with folio 34 recto (D11552; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 18) opposite but in fact that drawing is the right-hand continuation of a view of Mill Gill Fall at Askrigg (D11551; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 17a, now bound as folio 37 recto). A fairly comprehensive reordering of this part of the book appears to be required. The present writer has previously proposed such a rearrangement1 but even that seems to require further consideration; see notes, for example, to folios 33 recto (D11575; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 31) and 37 verso (D11550; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 17).