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

The name in Turner’s inscription is both crossed out and largely rubbed out, but is evidently that of Charles Turner (1774–1857), who was recorded at the given London address (now Great Castle Street, running parallel with Oxford Street and Margaret Street, and bisected by Regent Street north of Oxford Circus) in 1799, although by 1800 and for the rest of his career he was in nearby Warren Street.1 Perhaps Turner half-deleted the note once it became redundant.

Charles Turner seems to have been first professionally involved with J.M.W. Turner in the production of an important mezzotint of his unrelated contemporary’s 1805 painting The Shipwreck (Tate N00476),2 published in 1807 (Tate impression: P79356). He acted as both engraver and publisher in the early stages of the Liber Studiorum series (see the introduction to the ‘Liber Studiorum c.1806–24’ section of this catalogue). The two Turners fell out for some years, but after a reconciliation Charles was appointed as one of his near-namesake’s executors, and his signature is sometimes found among those endorsing the Turner Bequest sketchbooks, although not in this instance (see the note pasted inside the front cover, D40591).